DEMON'S SOULS A GAME FOR SONY PLAYSTATION 3

FUK A NORTH AMERICA WE RUNNA PLAY ASIA DOT COM ON THIS BITCH~!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING U POST IN THIS THREAD THAT ISNT A .GIF HAS 2 BE IN ALL CAPS BTW OR I WILL SUGGEST BAN U TO THE FUKKEN ABYSSS

IT'S OUT SOON U FKN RUBE

WHEN I PLAY I WILL PLAY AS A "ROYAL" BECUZ I AM NOBLE IN THOUGHT AND DEED BUT ALSO CUZ MAGIK IS REAL AND THE DARKNESS HOLDS THINGS TO MAKE A BRAVE MAN GET A STROKE ON ACCOUNT OF DAMN DOC MOREAU U FUKKED UPPPPP

EFF U_U COZ A REAL GAMER IMPORTS IT ALSO I NO ITS OUT IN USA SOON BUT AZN PPL NO WATS UP NEWAY WHAT DO U THINK POST SUM VIDZ OR GTFO

I LOVE LAMP'S THREAD

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3537/allhailbritannia.jpg

THIS GAME HAS A MESSAGING/EDUCATIONAL MODE

FUK THAT

LOL U PLAY WOW

http://www.opggaming.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/wow.jpg

U FUXX POSTIN JPGS DID YOU NOT READ THE RULS

how do i make the letters capitalized?

really really pumped for this game, by the way. will be first day purchase.

YELL AT KEYBORD

HEY HERE'S A REALLY INFORMATIVE WRITEUP ABOUT DEMONS SOULS FROM GAMASUTRA

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25238

NEAT

WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH CHUG'S LEGS

LOOKS LIKE JAPANESE PPL FINALLY DISCOVERED AD&D FIRST EDITION LET ME DO SOME QUIK CALCULUS IN ORDER TO HIT A DEMON WITH ONE FUKKEN ARROW OH DAMN NO IM DEAD AGAIN!!!!! OH WELL THERE GOES THREE HOURS OF SOUL COLLECTING BUT AT LEAST MY AP MATH EXAM WILL B A BREEZE

EVERYTIME A LAMP DIES AN ANGEL LOSES ITS WINGS

this looks kind of neat i guess

ehh

Talking about this game is like using a salt shaker that someone's loosened the top of as a gag.

really thought the writer was using "gag" in a different sense there and i was like O_o

SB BOTH U COMMIE FUKS HOPE U GET MERC'D BY PHALANX

you make a good fascist. would i like this game?

do u even like videogames?

i don't even know anymore i mean I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE, i am sbing you for breaking your own caps rule

this game made me sleepy today

YES BUT IS IT AWESOME

this game is insanely good, by the way. game of the year good. rubbing shoulders with Fallout 3 for my top game of this gen. i am probably not halfway through but am already excited about starting again with a different type of character. it really makes an art out of being brutally unforgiving. i never though i would enjoy the experience of playing a game for 2 hours and barely getting a step further along.

five hours in and I'm in the exact same spot.

so is this anything like Shiren the wanderer?

OKAY THIS SHIT APPEARS TO OWN

TUTORIAL BOSS KILLED ME IN 2 HITS BUT THE TEMPLE KNIGHT WASN'T REALLY DOING IT FOR ME ANYWAY SO I'M'A RESTART TOMORROW

tell me if i should buy this or uncharted deux

both iirc

i have a friend playing both at the same time. he says they are a perfect compliment - demon's souls is the darkness, uncharted 2 is the light. whoever said loving demon's souls is like a variety of stockholm syndrome was bang otm.

THIS GAME IS DIGITAL SQUATS

plz expand on that

SQUATS ARE VERY SORE BUT VERY REWARDING THE MORE U PUT IN THE MORE U GET OUT

WHY WOULD ANYONE SQUAT BUT SQUATS ARE THE SHIT

it's basically really hard but amazing, not one to play if u only have 30 mins here or there tho I'd imagine : /

well I figure it will be precisely the type of game I'll be able to pick up whenever once/if I ever get good at it

I mean WELL I FIGURE IT WILL etc.

okay so basically I should get this...?

reasons to not get this game:

1. you are a massive babby who takes it personally when you're not perfect at a game
2. you value having free time in which to not play/daydream about Demons Souls
3. ????

otm x 3

i don't want to drop any spoilers so i will just say that i have just encountered maybe the best idea for a boss in my gaming experience.

the thing about this game i guess is that its really a) engrossing b) good looking c) malicious i told my friend its like dating someone whos gorgeous and treats u terribly but is great in bed also:

DEMON SOUL MAGIC SYSTEM U OWN GREAT INTUIUTIVE POWERFUL I WILL FUCK SHIT UP NOW THANKS

i want 2 play it can i play it

this is still wrapped at home, very excited tho

send it over plz

if i send it you i'll you'll get some kind of sauce on it

nice - like a tomato sauce or

exactly

REALLY WANT THIS BUT PS3 SUX - when is PC version?

NEVAH

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Brightman/ds.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Brightman/ds2.jpg

needs more "You Died!"

got over-excited and posted this on wrong thread:

holy shit @ everyone's worlds being pushed to pure black all day halloween. pure genius and pure evil.

finally started playing this and had a full-on belly lol when I encountered the vanguard demon with the big fucking axe

"I'll block this with my shield! Okay maybe I won't, lololololol"

oh man i am so sucked into this game right now

Can you guys give me a sense of how hard this game is? The reviews make it sound absolutely punishing.

Basically, after the first time you die it's basically like slamming your face repeatedly against a wall, only hilariously fun.

^that is a great description. it is the kind of game where you are guaranteed to have that dark night of the soul moment where you have to ask yourself if you are really going to do that same goddamn level for the 25th time, but a bit of perseverance will get you through. and the blue phantom mechanism is a get out of jail free card if there is a boss that you really get stuck on, as happened to me twice.

i couldn't recommend this game enough. it is really a step beyond.

as i mentioned on the dragon's age thread, i compulsively started demon's souls again with a different type of character, but the first playthrough was so traumatic i am now happy to play something else instead and come back to this another time.

you finished demon's souls?

i know, i feel like i am due a parade or something.

we'll get you a prostitute.

that sounds good. i'll bring the confetti.

how the fuck did you do that; how many hours did you put in?

the first three hours are SO FRUSTRATING, but when the game opens up and shows you its depth and payoff it's worth it. When I found my first complete set of armor in a back room I was literally dancing on the couch.

It's like playing dungeons and dragons with a very very pissed off DM who knows what they're doing.

i played about 80 hours and reached soul level 97. the last archdemon i did (boletarian palace) took me almost 6 hours over 2 days and i was literally shaking by the end of it.

haha amazing

every now and again there is something that makes me think i am living in a crappy absurdist novel about america and this is one of those things

Seriously, DO NOT READ WALKTHROUGHS OR FAQs for this; this game is absolutely about fear and discovery and immersion. I read one thing about magic and it sorta spoiled the moment later. Just figure stuff out.

that it's not real?

no, how to use it. as with everything in this game, puzzling out how to do it is half of the fun. dying is the other 50%

lol s1ocks

so u can't pause in this game right? what if you have to pee??

YOU DIED

online players can tough yr pee stain and see a special message from u

* touch!

is it a picture of u peeing

someone knocked on my door and my dog went berzerk and I'm yelling at girlfriend upstairs asleep to get door and she gives me a serious WTF face on the way past and I want to apologize because IS NO PAUSE BUTTON and sorry u r a DEMON SOULS widow now

if you need to step away you have to find a safe nook. you are usually safe from monsters as they don't tend to roam, but once i came back from the kitchen just in time to witness my poor guy being disemboweled by another player invading my game as a black phantom.

would also recommend hitting the PS button so that if you are clumsy like me you don't drop the controller on the R2 button and watch your dude do a strong attack off a cliff.

is it me or is there totally a superfluous apostrophe in this games title? is there a character named demon in this game?

i think it should be demons' souls

no

I would have called it "Demons, Souls"

haha

Demons/Souls

de mons' souls: a jah rastafari rpg

Knocked out the tower knight and the spider last night back to back, though of course I'm dead again. Boosted my strength enough to finally use the compact bow. in the deep tunnels now, falling from platform to platform and beating the hell out of giant fireworm beetle larvae from behind. Still no magic! Still no miracles! perhaps I misread my spoiler. I'm playing as a wanderer, falchion +6/heater shield +6/brush armor all around. Kinda doing the tank thing so very very happy to finally have a distance attack. Have not visited world 3, only barely stuck my nose into world 4 and thought it looked like such an eyesore mess that I better wait.

there's actually a lot of funny discussion of the apostrophe on the internet--

the question is, how come none of you brought this up yet? hmm?

i'm going to go ahead and call this my game of the year

I am reserving judgment until after I play NSMBWii but otherwise yeah, and this year has at least two other games I'd put in my top 10 of the decade (Uncharted 2 and Bowser's Inside Story).

speaking of which, are we going to do a Coint & Plick for the decade too?

plz don't for my sanity

ditto, but i might if i have too much free time

appropo of nothing but i went to the premiere of the new Richard Foreman last night and it was basically a point and click flash game with actors and no controls.

felt so fucking smart about getting behind the giant arrow shooting weapon on the bridge, then promptly GANKED by black phantom

hit a major frustration point and then discovered that 4-2 yields a solid 25K+ souls if you cruise through all the way to the boss door
started grinding to get all stats up to 20 and bang there goes three hours and I'm still not even close to straight 20's. Got my first miracle and the "return to the nexus" option is like where the fuck have YOU BEEN all this time silent tears of thankfulness
such a vicious lover this game
frustration ebbing, character stronger, gonna go back and fuck up that pair of maneaters any minute now.
the sickness level is so vertigo inducing

anybody else still working this?
As you may recall, I bought a ps3 with four other games and none of them have even been put in the drive yet.

I'm a hairs breadth away from shaming myself on ebay for this game. (importing to UK)

Can I pick up the normal edition, or do I need the one that has a guidebook with it.

Seeing as Legends of Wrestlmania has a guide in English, its just Atlus player hating that you cannot get an English Guide for DS seperately

Or should I go for the one that has an artbook & a CD and just accept that I'll want something to stare at as I rock back & forth.

i wish i had gotten the guide, mostly for obsessive purposes.

the guide owns; also with the box you get the awesome original cover art

http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/the-most-boring-game-year

massively otm article. choice quote: "people who tell you that it’s hard just aren’t being boring enough about it"

sadly otm; i wish i could pretend it wasn't.
i love this game so much though. it perfectly replicates the never-ending feel of junior-high school ending when beating a game was sometime far off in the 90's.

whoa, I didn't know Chris Dahlen wrote for Edge! I used to love that dude's Pitchfork column.

okay, so it's down to boss battles in three worlds and sojourning the poisonous wastes and avoiding that fucking big sword black phantom on the wall. Still about ten points short of rolling all twenties and would love to find some moonstones to finish off my sword to a +5. It's either going to be a hard grind to up stats now or I'm gonna figure out how to beat these guys. Need to set aside a few hours.

i can't even beat the first dungeon.

ALRITE I OWN THIS BITCH.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO BLOW TO GET A SWORD THAT INSTA-KILLS DRAGONS AND LOOKS RAD.

Executioner Miralda and even then it ain't really happening.

hamildan, you could import from VG+, renchi or axelmusic (to avoid the perils of ebay)?

oh

too late

DEMON'S SOULS A GAME FOR SONY PLAYSTATION 3 [Started by hope u get ♋ (Lamp)

When I want to read about the game... I pore over spreadsheets.

got it for too much money from an importer here in London.

thought that any cheaper offers on the internet would probably bring a VAT charge so it was easier just to go and pick it up.

the plain version is selling in import shops here for £65 ($110)

Hella glad I bought the version with the guide though. What are they thinking not including it with every game?

will have to wait till the weekend to put some time into it though, just chugging through the guide on the bus to work.

thinking about a Knight who rocks the magic weapons.... I normally go magic based but I think I dont have the skills to play the defensive game in DS.

i went wanderer which was idiotic.

THE ONLY THING MAKE THIS GAME BETTER IS A FISHING MINI GAME AND JIZZMOS CONTINUE NOT FUKKEN BLOGGING ABOUT IT

I CANT MAKE A FISHING ROD IN UNICODE

---- DIED -----

Killed the Phalanx last night and now the game seems less pointless as I can actually upgrade with souls.

no magic or ranged attacks so I poured turps on my sword and lit that bitch up.

Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

apparently eb doesn't sell the demon's souls guide? wtf

guide is available only with the deluxe edition of the game. it's a bummer.

that moment when you get to the point where you can actually start improving is absolutely REAL DEMON'S SOULS STARTS NOW

Played for 3 hours, lost all my souls & didn't get a step further.

need to skill up before steppin' to the Tower knight.

REAL DEMON'S SOULS STARTS NOW

ha that happened to me last night. anyone know why i can't equip cling ring? is it because i'm a pussy weakling magician?!

Is it cause you is not a soul?

i'm dead man i still haven't beat the first dungeon!

15 hours in and a few questions.

Can I sell items? (or what happens to the million slave's shields I have?)

If I scare off a crystal lizard, that's it gone for keeps right?

Are there any non scarey boss's? I got to the spider boss and didn't even go in his room.

15 hours in and I have said some bad words to the screen....some very bad words.

You can't sell items, though you CAN improve some of them with stones to the point where they become useful. You can chuck the slave's shields.

Crystal lizards disappear once they're fully dug in and that after-image fades, yes. You can always go back to the stage and they often will reappear.

There are no "non scarey boss's". Everything in this game will fuck you up.

The Crystal lizards taunt you if you hit them but dont kill them and they dissapear....the cunts.

On the flamelurker boss. Or rather got to it, decided I didn't want to fight it, tried to get back to the start, fell to my death, lost 10,000 souls.

okay, i got the dragon god (this looks like the obligatory God of War puzzle boss), the big king soulsucking motherfucker (how am i supposed to beat this guy?) and two levels of plagueworld. I'm close now, right?

56 hours and soul level 80 something and falling cause of king boletaria shithead

i'm going to start his game over. what kind of character should i use this time?

*this

fascist

According to Playstation twitter: Heroes of Boletaria, take heart: rumor has it the Old One's power will falter in the days following the winter solstice #demonssouls

and in English probably PWWT or nearabouts from 21st December.

So all enemies will be easier but drop less loot, and WT events will trigger.

well, i beat it but it was a bit anticlimactic. don't know if it couldn't have been though.

re-started as a knight. finally beat the first dungeon and came back to life. that was fun. what's next.

-YOU DIED-
^^^^^^^^^^

xxpost - next is hatred for dragons and blue eyed knights growing till you have your first dark night of the soul experience where you have to mentally psyche yourself up to do that bridge level again.

then you died.

i can see this game taking over one's life

so now that it's beaten, you apparently just start over?

I got this game. Pointers pls

beat the bad guys (with weapons and magic iirc)

how do I get out from behind this picnic table

-YOU DIED BEHIND A PICNIC TABLE-

-YOUR NICE DAY OUT DIED-

I died twelve times and then went to bed. How long realistically are play sessions in this fucking game if you hope to make any fucking progress at fucking all? Did I err when choosing the Thief class or does everybody get killed this much?

boost your stamina so you can roll around/ jump back loads and practice your parry-riposte.

the thief is a class that needs agility to stab people in the back and avoid heavy attacks.

so get a good shield and practice blocking/parrying and on boleteria castle 1-1 practice running past opponents and stabbing them in the back.

both actions will get you a slowed down animation so you know you have done it right.

play sessions in this game are a mix of level grinding and skill grinding.

each time you play you get better, unless you are trying to rush and then the entry level guys will serve you good.

just get used to doing the early levels over and over again and try different techniques to see what works.

Thanks, that's pretty much exactly what I thought. How is the EXP or whatever that you're skillgrinding accrued? The only pickups I seem to be getting are the souls.

btw everything else aside I like this game! It reminds me of the way games felt when I was a little kid. I like that somehow it's not fucking infuriating despite the fact progress is so glacial

ant, until you beat the first level you don't up your stats. so don't worry about anything but play control and getting one decent weapon/armor/shield and not so much even then. Near the end of the game, I was routinely dying and leaving behind 30K souls. You'll get em eventually.

OK! Good advice! Now: is there any less-annoying way to lock on a target besides allatime clicking R3-- and is there any better way to engage multiple guys without either getting clunked in the back of the head by the guy you're not fighting or trying to lure them into single combat one by one?

ha, this reminds me that i was on THE FINAL TWO BOARDS before I discovered the R3 lock on by accident. I played the whole game without that lock on. This was probably only possible because I played a wanderer who always fought with a curved sword, so broad attack hits. I don't know whether that made difficulty higher or lower. It certainly meant that I almost never got crystal lizards or slugs.

Dont worry too much about locking on.

I only use it in dark tunnnels where its more to see where everyone is.

its good for making sure long range stabbing hits connect, but if the camera decides to go haywire, you're screwed.

souls are equipment currency and EXP, So you are constantly deciding if better gear or a better character is the way to go.

dont worry about losing souls, like forks says eventually you get ways to quickly farm souls.

I like to go to the tower knights archstone, kill the 2 blue eyed knightas then do the blue eyed knight from 1-1 and then the red eyed knight.

In early days that would have been an impossible feat but now I'm riposting the blues and 2-hit-killing the red.

still to afraid to meet the flame lurker though....

I did my old deal of over-levelling for final guys and then charging in and tanking my way through final folks. Don't be afraid to use the stones that bring you back to life for final battles! I finished the game with like twenty five of those things in reserve. If you're ALMOST beating a guy, those will make all the difference.
And get you a bow ASAP!

Thief comes with a bow but arrows seem to be in short supply

dude in the nexus sells them for thirty souls a pop, right?

also ffs NEVER start a fight with a merchant. Even fucking hyena boy. You'll regret it. Oh, and DON'T pay too much for equipment; save your souls for leveling. If you're a diligent adventurer, there's nothing you can buy that you can't find within the game.

forks did u not pay attention to the tutorial?

http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10204000/10204244.jpg

obi-waaaaaaaan why ya gotta be a playa hata

pssssht, "tutorial"

So do you just get a certain amount of souls and then head back and spend them when you're grinding the first level? I don't quite get it. Can you bank the souls in the nexus?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laOZ7HPu9yU

Don't sweat it too much, you'll figure it out. I don't want to ruin it; just fight your way past the phalanx and nose around a little and it'll be evident soon enough.
Bear in mind that i think it took me ten hours to beat the first level.
Have you found the boletarian merchant yet? That's REAL DEMON SOULS BEGINS NOW

but one thing you should know is there is no banking of souls, like ever.
use em or lose em or find your corpse or get the hero soul rocks but that's it.

I'm keeping all my heros souls for a that thing that allows you to teleport back to the nexus, souls intact. that's gonna be a better day than Christmas when i get that beauty.

yeah, that was THE BEST
do you want a minor spoiler though?

I think I might have figured this game out! So you die 5000 times and each time you die you get a little bit better at the game, right? And then by the time you die of old age in real life you're good at the game.

sub "die of old age" for "in-game hour 20" and you got it.

Why can I only reliably backstab sucky guys? I get enough of that in real life

OKAY, LET'S DO THIS.

I DIED

let me know when the despair sets in

I have a secret weapon -- I do not expect to be any good at this game at all, so any success I have will be a delightful surprise.

The despair set in when my PS3 drive broke the day the servers went pure white WT, and I have about 2 weeks of prime Demons souls playing time till my GF & the baby come back from holiday and the machine wont recognise discs....

the only thing worse than playing Demon's Souls is not playing Demon's souls

FU H3LG3SON
http://twitpic.com/1aos47

http://web9.twitpic.com/img/78418519-cbd0bea115bed6f79374cd1b158d61b8.4bab7b60-scaled.jpg

lol. for a second i was high on the mountain top of ALREADY??? and a split second later i was deep in the trough of "hilarious". why aren't people being more ashamed about getting whipped by this game and crying about it?

This game worked me so hard that I am scared to go back.

pssssht. it's not THAT hard.

coming to Europe apparently...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/demons-souls-coming-to-europe

REAL EU DEMON'S SOULS SERVERS START NOW?

http://img2.pict.com/a7/55/33/3365054/0/b003h9njfo.jpg
day 1

+1

coincidentally am reminiscing with a friend who picked this back up recently and is burning through some of the later stages. so many golden memories. would love to play again but the torment is still so fresh in my mind that just thinking about it gives me the Fear.

man i wish i had gotten the deluxe package

while i am in the neighbourhood i figured i would stop by and say that this is maybe possibly my favourite game ever of all time and always and also platinum trophy *braggin*

woah that is worth a *brag* tho

finally out tomorrow in the wasteland

Dear Customer,
Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,
We are writing to let you know that the following item has been sent

get ready for pain

YOU DIED

I am all up in this bitch now.

Dying sucks. Im also having a hard time figuring out just wtf is going on in the menus. I spent a bunch of souls on some shield I cant even use because I didnt understand the notations.

eh this games not as hard as everyone makes out, i mean ok i've died a few times but not that many really holy shit what is that dragon doing ohh shiiiiiiii YOU DIED

The difficulty to overcome is within you, not the game...

compare those adverts where a whole family is playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii and laughing and dad comes in and he's brought snacks... and everyone laughs more...

now look at yourself at two in the morning, when an end of level boss pounds you and you have to walk through the entire level again...YOU CRIED

The difficulty to overcome is within you, not the game...

Whats with all the goddamn 'HELP ME I AM IN TROUBLE RECOMMEND THIS NOTE' messages

no fuck you

if you recommend them, they get a health boost.

New Super Mario Bros. did in fact bring me close to tears at some points

hooked on this so bad

still dont understand a fucking thing about world tendencies..

So I beat this on accident earlier today. I killed the boss with minimal effort when it just sat there when I shot it with like 15 fireballs..

yeah, the end guy is an odd cakewalk; especially when compared to some of the other final bosses.

just got added to the Greatest Hits lineup, anyone who has $30 and passes on this deal is a butt

o nice

this game is too fuckin easy

lol

1. oh hey, this isn't so bad!

2. ...okay wait if I am reading this message from the US server administrators correctly I am basically playing on easy mode. Until about a week from now, when it will be flipped over into bastard mode for the rest of the month.

3. BALLS

4. YOU DIED

actually that could also be 1a

I actually didn't die that much! I may even still be in the single digits. I'm using a Thief, playing slowly + cautiously, and making sure to take some time blocking and watching enemies to figure out attack patterns. After that it's just been a matter of using the right weapon (I have a scimitar for soft things and a mail breaker for hard things) and counter, stab, Bob's your uncle (and is also dead). Groups can be a pain, though, and that first boss (the big writhing fuckpile of shield-spear-blob-things) is a GOD. DAMN. ASSHOLE. It doesn't help that I wasted all my firebombs on my first attempt and I'm too lazy to grind up a bajillion more souls so I can buy more.

yeah, you know I watched somebody play this when it was all white tendency and it's about, oh, half to a quarter as hard as it is on all black. Good luck with that.
Btw, do NOT try to grind before you beat the first boss. You start grinding after that.

http://kotaku.com/5666793/how-to-beat-demons-souls-in-under-an-hour

Now I will pretend that I have beaten this game.

Demon's Souls beaten from the beginning in 1 hour:

http://www.youtube.com/user/alternalw#p/u/3/KWi6t8Psv9w

0_0

Sequel, bitches!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc8fsve6u8M
YOU'LL DIED

fyi for anyone who has been keeping up, ^this is rebranded Project Dark. seems like they started out making something 'similar but different' and as Demons Souls kept blowing up (comparatively) the suits told them to make it 'similar but very similar' instead. The Cursed Crusade, due out this summer from Demon Souls' publisher, is also a notional successor, supposedly with some themes/elements retained.

"Dark Souls is not a sequel to Demon’s Souls by any means. However, it’s created by the same producers and director and so the ideologies, concepts, and themes have carried over and are similar. It’s a totally new game with similar concepts."
sounds like a sequel to me

apparently no online play as they dont want to have the upkeep of servers.....

I might have read that wrong....though.

servers offline May 31. if you haven't played it yet, now is the time.

is the combat in dark souls better than in demon's? i have no problem with pointless numbing difficulty (much love for etrian odyssey) but i felt like the camera and getting hung up on the environment contributed to way more frustration/death/soul loss than the deliberate system quirks (which i really liked).

via brief stints w/ both, i can say that they're the exact same game. almost. the sole difference is that demon's is set in a continuos, "open world" map whereas in dark you have a hub in which you select levels to travel to. it's like purgatory, kind of and is actually sort of nice just to set the controller down within and let the music play while you toast your freeze-dried egg mcmuffins you bought from costco

also, most people say it's easier in dark souls considering that when you die you don't restart w/ half-life

yeah no pause is a dick move (i know it's for online purposes but still)--there's a tension in having inventory management in real time and i appreciate that but no excuse for not having a regular old pause no-menu kinda option.

there are a number of significant differences in terms of world and mechanics but the gameplay is very similar in each.

no pause is great. coming back from the bathroom to find yourself being invaded by some asshole is a key part of the experience. you can always just quit to menu if having no pause is really riling you.

hmm... can you pause with the PS button? I never tried that.

game still runs. using the ps button will at least stop you accidentally hitting a shoulder button and jumping off a cliff tho...

maaaan i really wanted to play this but i guess i never will

otoh i feel like the day zero stuff would be a necessary part of the appeal, like playing smth like this knowing it is all already on gamefaqs would be kind of sad

The internet-enabled parts of this game are nice, but are they crucial? I never got far enough into the game for it to really matter.

coming back from the bathroom to find yourself being invaded by some asshole is a key part of the experience

read this wrong at first

Might as well bump this now in preparation for future bitching from me. Already worried that absentminded my bumping the square button and eating some half moon grass by mistake has doomed my first playthrough.

oh we have such sights to show you

everybody remember when you accidentally ate the grass and were like "oh man what if i needed that" and then
YOU DIED
YOU DIED
YOU DIED
YOU DIED
YOU DIED
YOU DIED

I DIED

I assume its natural to not know where to go or wtf is going on

yup

just go with it

Is there shit in all these barrels and grain sacks ever or am I just wasting stamina bashing away at them?

wasting stamina, but don't worry it's not a thing

I think this is fun? Maybe?

this interview with president of Sony's studios Shuhei Yoshida is kinda lol
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/02/10/shuhei-yoshida-interview.aspx?PostPageIndex=1

I feel one of Sony’s biggest software mistakes this generation was passing on publishing Demon’s Souls in North America and Europe.

Absolutely! Tell me about it! 100 percent agree!

How did it happen? Was it as simple as this game wasn’t going to sell? How involved were you?

For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, “This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.” So I put it aside.

Luckily, third party publishers, Atlus in North America and Namco in Europe [stepped in], and it really became a great hit outside of Japan.

We definitely dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint, including studio management side. We were not able to see the value of the product we were making.

yeah, ok, after sleeping on it, i am def down with the greatness of this game. at first (before i played it) all the "tough but fair" descriptions had the ring of lol noob defensiveness, but it really is accurate. its crazy to me that as a dude who gets fucking rageful when i have to do some platforming nonsense 15 times after i get the idea/trick and just want to get on with it that replaying the first world idk 8 times in a row last night NEVER got frustrating or boring, just more and more rewarding. also, the message mechanic is brilliant, and actually is like a salve for all the griefing bullshit in the gaming world (although yeah i know that can backfire, and we'll see what i think when some cock wanders in and pwns me for fun). still ruminating on some of the more interesting aspects of how the game is constructed (particularly the "throw you in and make you learn how to swim" vibe of hiding a lot of the item info in sub menus, never really explaining the guages but making them intuitive, deathtraps without warning, etc.) but yeah, the hype is totally legit.

a lot of the messaging stuff is griefing but of the "totally baffling" variety.

I really need to break this game back out; I loved it but at the time WoW was sucking up all my gaming time

i had my ass saved a bunch of times getting health spiffed from leaving a message in front of some crates hiding firebombs that said "valuable treasure ahead" and getting people to recommend it or whatever. its a great self-sustaining mechanic.

AND THEN I DIED

i am glad that i read some stuff online (and here) saying not to stress abt losing souls early on, i might have bailed if i thought i was fucked every time i didnt reach my bloodstain.

i ordered this the other day along w/ nba2k13 :)

nm i thought this was the dark souls thread

i gotta get in on this

you really do

dammit I wanna play this again right NOW but my parents are in town all weekend and staying with us

I suppose I could just give them the keys to the car and tell them to explore but it's the weekend of their 50th wedding anniversary so that might not go over well

YOU ARE A BAD SON

(with accompanying bassline/chaindrop effect)

http://demonssouls.wdfiles.com/local--files/enemies/mind-flayer.jpg

http://forums.demonssouls.info/images/ranks/Rank3-Fat-Official.png

are you playing this now?

yes. i am a glutton for punishment i guess

good man

how does it seem, going backwards from dark souls? i feel like it shouldn't seem obviously 'older' or lower-spec.

it is harder if anything. the world tendency stuff can really undo you. the game basically gets harder the worse you do, to a point. and without bonfires some of the levels can seem really long.

i'm still sort of early game which seems to be where main difficulty lies with the souls games. i don't think its that bad though since i've leveled up a bit but i've only beaten 4-5 bosses so far. combat is still the same except i think there's no jump. the archstone as respawn point takes some getting used to but it seems like most levels have shortcuts you can open up to ease the grind. the one thing that made me notice its age is some of the a.i. like ostrava strutting around like a robot. i don't rly pay attention to the tendencies but i also don't fully understand its workings.

one thing i've had trouble with in a few areas was lock-on targeting not working right

i had a good recent invasion u might like (dark souls tho - currently stuck inside the painting world). i get invaded in anor londo right before u make across the rafters. i peek outside the broken window and the guy is standing on the balcony. i bow and he looks like he's bowing but something is at his feet. he points down at it and i think oh he's giving me something but i stand where i am. he points at it again and sort of moves to the side. its obvious i'm sure but i'm a noob casul idiot and i go and pick it up and promptly get one-hit backstabbed back to the bonfire. u prob figured out by now what he dropped for me - an indictment :-)

^i've never played the game but i love this story

lol @ invasion, that is quality trolling

world tendency in demon's basically means that whenever you die in body form the mobs get harder, up to pure back tendency when you get additional souped-up black phantom enemies to contend with

that explains why it hasn't affected me yet. what is this "body form" u speak of ; )

currently the things i haven't been able to kill yet are red eye knights and red eye dual wielding skeletons. basically if its eyes are red i'm fucked. i found this games talking bird tho lol "gimme twinkly"

maneaters :(

oh-oh here they come

that whole level was a fucking disaster for me first time

the level itself was easy for me except stupidly trying to melee the prisoner horde, all 30 arms hacking me. i ended up cheesing the boss using arrows through the fog on the first one and even then the 2nd one killed me a bunch until i used full armor and warding

guessing thats a good level for soul farming?

the prime soul farm points are the start of 4-2 and 4-3. have you done those levels?

not yet, 4-2 is next up

4-1 is a good early farm particularly if you can one hit kill the skellies, they are worth a decent amount each. but without giving anything away, almost the first proper enemy you meet in 4-2 is good for iirc 7k souls and when you know what you're doing you can run in, kill, suicide and repeat in like 10 seconds per go

also, there is a 'trick' to 4-2, to one particularly hard part. i did a couple playthrus before finding out about it. i wouldn't necessarily encourage you to research beforehand, but if you are having any kind of hard time i would bear that in mind. it make a bitch of an area significantly easier.

also, i don't know if you have picked up on this, but bows are way more important and relevant in demons than dark. not entirely a tangent...

4-2 broke me, i give up, fuck this game.

i am not going to front, it gets worse still. 5-2 is...let's just say, fuck 5-2.

haha i posted that and then tried 10 more times and made it through. 5-2 does seem like its going to be painful

went through all the bosses except 1-3. the old monk fight was interesting in that if you're online it summons another player to be the boss. its lame that it lets that player heal and just becomes your average pvp bullshit so i beat that one offline

i thought that was a neat and pretty original idea in theory tho

its a great idea. i might put a summon down to see if i can get picked for it

dragon god was like a bed of chaos precursor

weird ending! fake allant had some nice moves.

the lore is so confusing. who is the old one and why does the maiden in black need to slumber with him

the old one is existential angst, the monumental is purpose, and the maiden is duty

or the old one is something vaguely bad that was asleep and got woken up and now is going back to sleep

so obviously you didn't kill the maiden. did you go back to 1-1 to fight old king doran?

no, ostrava didn't appear in 1-3 or 1-4 to give me the damn key and then suddenly hes a black phantom

well tbh alls you did is save yourself a headache there

just watched a vid of him. one gripe i have w/ this game is the armor is in general pretty shitty looking. like king doran looks like he's wearing jorts and just walked out of a deck of playing cards

speaking of armour, the user-submitted shields for dark souls 2 are p.good
http://www.destructoid.com/these-winning-community-made-dark-souls-ii-shields-rock-258343.phtml

ancient king's jorts 19 / 19 / 22.8 / 19

fluted denim

i like this

Still another theory is that the player actually died in the tutorial and
everything that came after is a form of Hell. Perhaps the player was sent to
Hell for the sin of pride, the belief that they were the one hero who could
save Boletaria. So they gave the player a quest which can never be completed.
Side with the Old One or the Monumental, it makes no difference, The player's
quest will begin again and be harder than before. That means that the
Monumental and the Old One are just the good cop / bad cop of Hell.

So this has completely consumed every free moment I've had this past week and a half. So, so good. I've finished everything but world 5. Character's around level 65. I'm gonna nerd out about it a little bit.

- It's challenging, but not putting my through the wringer like I expected. Might be because I played Dark Souls and was already familiar with the mechanics. Also doesn't hurt that I've just been pumping points into Vitality and Stamina. Plenty of HP and swinging/blocking power. Maxed out Dragon long sword has been taking good care of me. Dragon weapons have high base damage and don't rely on STR, DEX, or MAG, which are relatively low on my character. Good fit for the time being.

- Managed to nearly take out Flamelurker on first attempt. Got him down to about 10% health before I depleted my grass stock. On the next go I summoned a blue phantom who promptly destroyed him in under 10 seconds. Have no idea what kind of equipment that guy had, but damn.

- Maneaters were a pain until I found out you could kill one of them before even entering the fog door.

- I also cheaped out and arrowed Old King Allant down to next to no health. After losing 3 Soul Levels to that guy, I didn't feel too bad about it. Little bit of controlled self-injury + Clever Rat Ring can really speed up those tedious sniping situations.

- I sweated my way through 3-1, got to the boss (floating witch type character with all the clones), nearly had her killed, then my roommate enters the room and yells "DEMON LORDS! DEMON LORDS! DEMON LORDS!" just to be a goofball dick. Distracted me and I DIED. I had to pretend like it wasn't that big of a deal, but I wanted to punch him in the face.

- Beat 4-2 on first attempt. B)

- I plan on messing around with world tendency stuff before closing out world 5 and opening up the end game. I'm curious to see how rough Pure Black is gonna be.

- I'm placing stats with an eye for lvl 120, which seems to be the commonly accepted PVP range. Going for a (super common, but apparently effective) Blueblood Sword build. This will likely limit me, because it's very specialized (gotta pump up Luck), so I hope I don't hate it.

- After I burn out on this, I'm gonna run through Dark Souls again. Never completed it. Fucking Anor Londo Archers.

- I also cheaped out and arrowed Old King Allant down to next to no health.

u can also poison cloud him from the stairs

PSHAW you could also MAN UP and die to him 20 times then call up a couple of phantom dudes who know what they are doing and let them get busy

old king was the hardest boss for me first time through, by miles. i never died to him again.

did you go back for old king doran? he was even harder imo. i only ever killed him once, and that was cos he got glitched on a barrel. one day i have to go back and beat him straight. it's not like i haven;t tried.

I sat around hoping to summon someone for Allant, but no luck. I wasn't about to waste any more levels on that guy unless it was necessary. NO REGRETS. Doran is on my list. You've made me a little worried.

PSHAW you could also MAN UP and die to him 20 times then call up a couple of phantom dudes who know what they are doing and let them get busy

so theres 3 ways of cheesing him : )

Wow. 5-2 sure was a pile of anti-fun. Thankfully the boss was a breeze. I like how the developers, seeing what a big hit w/ fans the poisonous, dark, swamp level was, decided to keep it for their sequel.

Doran's actually pretty easy if you use the Clever Rat Ring, the Thief Ring and a backstab weapon. Lower your health for Rat Ring attack bonus and take off your armor for speed, bait him out, run away, sneak up behind him as he walks back, backstab, repeat. Got him on the 2nd try.

did u put his jorts on

this ds2 screenshot reminds me of the storm king world

http://www.co-optimus.com/images/gallery/10183xDark_Souls_Nov_14.jpg

yeah can see that. looks good.

i did put those jorts on btw, along with most of the rest of his armor. it's a shame it looks so dumb (especially coming from Gloom Armor), because it's actually pretty good. light and no STA regen penalties.

anyway, i beat this and after dabbling w/ PVP and NG+, decided to start Dark Souls. proving a lot easier going than it did when i first played it ~2 years ago.

ha yeah the gloom armor is pretty dumb. if darks souls 2 has overpowered mosquitos im gonna be pissed

i will immediately kill anyone resembling patches

I finally played Dark Souls and holy crap is it hard, I can't even get past the 2nd bad guy in this game. I must have tried it like 20 times.

regretting selling my copy of this, been itching to play it recently

replaying this after grabbing it on psn. i accidentally aggro'd patches in the lava area and he is almost impossible to kill with melee. he just goes into coward turtle-mode poking away behind his shield lol. i eventually pushed him off 2 cliffs where he got stuck and then spent like 20 min picking him off with arrows, the fucker

FEEL LIKE I SHOULD BE POSTING LIKE THIS IN THIS THREAD

almost done with ng+. almost quit at maneaters

planning on playing this once a friend of mine decides he's done with his PS3 forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyX72JKp2J4

i played the other side of the old monk fight, got summoned to fight as him. if you hide right by the side of the door, the inexperienced player will walk right by you and not even see the firestorm coming. then you get to wear this everywhere

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/square_small/1/12096/1748693-old_monk_s_wrap.jpg

That's a sick hat. I was using that to one-shot lower lvl players in PvP. Flip side- you can accept one hit at maximum

glass cannon

im using the stockpile duping glitch, how did they not patch this

well, this is happening.

doing a dex build (wanderer) to stay in shape for Bloodborne. i tried doing 4-1 after the first boss and it was just not happening with starter gear, but i'm making progress through 1-2.

i'm sure i'm missing lots of stuff but was very happy to stumble on the Cling Ring.

i thought i would be better than this, f u Tower Knight. when fighting a boss for the first time i need to resist the urge to use up crazy amounts of grass and accept the death gracefully (it was close though).

im doing a level 1 playthrough. not too bad but finally got stuck on maneaters and 5-2

those maneaters make you work hard

lol that sounds fucking awful tbh. 5-2 is disgusting under normal circumstances.

what did you start as and what gear are you using?

yeah its ridic. i think level 1 is royal class so you get the one magic slot. shield is buckler +10 lol and using a fire sword or crescent one from 4-1. my friend who introduced me to souls series is doing it too, i co-oped with him on maneaters and killed them first try. then he helped me and it all went to shit, prob 10 deaths so far. 5-2 im just trying to speedrun to open the fucking shortcut but those fucking giant goon things and fucking mosquitos and fucking poison

i did kill the tutorial boss though, first time for that

jesus is that ever the fucking trap with 5-2, the desperation to get to that gdamn shortcut. how many times did i fuck up by trying to dash there.

sounds cool as well as awful but i don't think i could subject myself to it. nice work on tutorial boss, i never killed that fecker.

you can't dash there is the problem too many enemies and the swamp slows you down. i think i can do it, its just getting a long part of the way there and dying is really crushing on this level. i mean at least i'm not this guy doing SL1 NG+7 PBWT WTF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs4jtMrCPV4

haha gtfo

he's running around with 10% health the whole time so he can use that clever rat ring

good luck jordan

i felt stuck on this for awhile but things are moving along now. it definitely felt harder than Dark Souls but maybe that's just the early stages of any of these games, or because i was being super stubborn about getting through Shrine of Storms 1.

finally beat Flamelurker by getting him stuck on the rocks, whew. and the first Tower of Latria stage lives up to the hype, such a well-designed level.

also it's crazy hard to get the right upgrade materials in this game, huh

the upgrade system was over complicated in DeS IMO

also, if you roll royal (or whatever the sorcerer starting class guy is) this game is a snore, difficulty wise, after the first zone. also also, it's good fun to get that monk head wrap (that hat that increases your magic attack) and any other +magic items, and then just camp pvp areas and one shot people. it's like 50/50 whether the other guy has a chance to hit you once (usually all it takes) before your homing soul mass melts his flesh.

i did Wanderer thinking i was going to do a dex build, but i haven't been able to upgrade any dex weapons past the crescent falchion yet, and i've found myself putting everything into magic anyway.

i've been going back to this once a month or so and it still feels harder than Dark Souls. i do like how the last stage of each world seems to be a boss fight setpiece.

got all the way through Shrine of Storms and Stonefang Tunnel, haven't touched the Valley of Defilement but i guess i'll get that over with next?

4-2 broke me, i give up, fuck this game.

― am0n, Saturday, September 14, 2013 12:08 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i liked this one a lot, but ended up running past all of the reapers/spooky ghosts after the first set.

maaan, i hate the one-chance-only events in this game. like, pulling the giant sword out in the Dragon God level -- i had too much weight to pick it up, but after going back to the Nexus, it was gone forever. then i died helping Ostrava in 1-3, and that's a wrap.

that said i did have a very exciting experience playing 5-1 a few days ago. i was waiting for a ride to the airport and having my first really good run, and i ended up defeating the boss on the first try mere moments before i had to walk out the door. :)

dear lord 5-2. it's my last regular level and you really have to learn the path inch by inch > die > repeat.

yep it is traumatizing. make sure you open the shortcut before attempting the boss.

word, i don't think i've ever been happier to hit a shortcut/checkpoint. got through Garl Vinland using the shotel, now i just have Allant left.

ok, i don't feel great about i how i did it (Warding > Fire Storm > spice > repeat), but it's done. now i can go into Bloodborne with a clean conscience. :)

AGH TOWER KNIGHT MAKE IT GO AWAY

I survived for a little while by going up the staircase at the back and killing a couple of crossbowmen, but I can't quite work out the timing to attack the Knight when his shield is up- he seems to only lift it while he's attacking. I guess I could try and circle him from the back next time, but frankly I'm scared to get close to him.

BRING ME MORE DEMONS SOULS. take all the archers out and then attack the ankles from behind to cripple him then hit his head

Okay, so I'm on the right track! I'm trying to avoid wikis as much as possible, except in a couple of circumstances- I had to look up what exactly "quality" weapons were, since the game itself does basically nothing to tell you. In retrospect, I could have figured it out if I'd reread the manual a couple of times, looked at the second screen of stats for upgraded items, and consistently been able to remember the symbols for each attribute, but as much as I'm willing to stick my neck out for this game, I'm not quite there yet :)

I've got most of 1-2 down to a science (<3 Thief's Ring; I dunno how the dogs in the underside of the bridge or that mob of crossbowmen PLUS a blue-eyed knight would work without it) but I still kind of dread those two Knights in a row. Usually by the time I've finished the first one- in cramped quarters to avoid dragon breath or, god forbid, aggroing the second one- my heart is pounding enough that I can't quite calm down, string him along, dodge and wait for the right moment to get a parry kill.

My proudest moment so far was finally realizing on a repeat visit (after setting the game aside for a couple weeks) that the Armor Spider wasn't immune to ranged attack as I'd somehow thought after my first couple of attempts. I must have somehow missed with my crossbow- maybe I shot it as the spider was rearing up above the archway to shoot webs? Anyway, I went back, ground up enough souls in 1-1 and 1-2 to buy a bunch of arrows for my fancy new compound bow, bought Soul Arrow (reasoning that Flame Toss isn't going to do diddly-shit on a fire-themed boss), panicked when it looked like Soul Arrow didn't work, realized it just has awful range, and boom, done. I had to make another wiki visit just to see what was up with the alternate rewards for bosses' souls, though- and I'm glad I did, because I'm not sure I would have ever figured that out.

you can do tower knight w/ soul arrow too, just stay up above and dodge

Working on it. Took a swing through 2-2 until a crystal lizard (still haven't managed to kill a single one) led me straight to a couple of glowy red knights and I panicked, RAN back to the elevator and barely made it up to the surface; used the proceeds to buy a short spear and then immediately had a winged spear drop from a random guy in 1-1 while I was grinding up enough to start it down the upgrade path. I'm still 1 strength too low to use it, though, so I'm sticking with my +5 rapier/+3 quality dagger (which I seem to exclusively use for killing dogs) for now.

The Tower Knight is coming along. He's fast for such a big fucker. I'm still having some difficulty taking out the archers on the tops of the walls, since getting close enough to target lock them leaves me wide open for the Knight's lance throwing move, so I just ignored them and tried to work on the boss. I'm getting a better handle on his movement, and pretty much never die to that shield slam move anymore. Managed to get in and slash away at his ankles, which started venting that green gas (souls, I guess) that dead enemies bleed out, but he didn't take any visible damage or start behaving differently. He'll be my project for tomorrow evening, I guess...

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l704mehDtk1qbzf0vo1_500.png

http://imgur.com/Znkm2Zs

the dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UQtBMKCipk

there's a Demon's Souls sample on this track ;)

just playing this for the first time. holy shit, it is awesome. definitely better than DS2. maybe DS1? i don't know, i still have a long way to go. highly recommend playing this after DS3 - it is the souls game it feels closest to!

really great level design in this. it feels like DS3 is a conscious effort to remake a lot of DeS, maybe to bring the series full circle. there is the Nexus and Tower of Latria, but also the laughing Evangelists and red eyed knights, the dragons on the bridge, etc. lots of the stuff in DS1 and DS2 also copied from DeS. even Bloodborne! there are octopus-faced evil wizards, w stacks of coffins.

Any luck summoning people these days?

i don't know, i don't have PSNow or an account, this is a used console. i thought they shut down the servers. or did they not?

i bought this in the January sale, servers still seem to be on

don't know if i like it yet, but i'm maybe in the wrong head-space

you can play online w/ PS3 for free. or at least that used to be the case. if so, worth firing up. playing offline is no way to play a Souls game.

Demon's was the only one I played offline. I definitely missed the interaction, but it was also kind of cool knowing that I couldn't cave and summon help if I was having trouble with a boss. Increased the sense of isolation that these games are so good at conveying.

Might have to play this again. Nearly the equal of the first Dark Souls, but Dark gets the edge because the interconnected world is a lot cooler than the hub system.

Think I'd rate em something like:

Dark Souls 1 >= Demon's Souls > Bloodborne = Dark Souls 3 > Dark Souls 2

i loved demon's souls, which i played and never beat at a time when i had neither internet nor a smartphone. the sheer incomprehensibility of it all was kinda sublime in the burkean sense, something i never got from the other games (perhaps because i was more plugged in by then).

if dark souls 3 captures some of that magic i might gotta check it out

I don't think anything other than Demon's or the first Dark Souls ever really captured it. Could be because I've spent so much time with these games, but I played Demon's years after Dark 1 and I got the same juice. Not so much with the other ones.

DS3 brings back some familiar levels and enemies from Demon's but... not quite the same magic.

And one of the great things about these games back when they were fresh is that friends and I would be texting/talking to each other about secrets or tactics or mechanics (which were so wonderfully obscure) in a way that hasn't happened for me since the 90s. Series got a little too user friendly (relatively speaking) and popular and you'd get like play through videos online almost immediately and a lot of that charm was lost.

yeah DS3 is far more friendly and comprehensible than DeS. not quite the same.

i played through DS1 the same way, no summons, single-player, off-line. this is how i played every RPG so it didn't seem weird. first game i used summons for was DS3 and while it was cool it also made it so rather than struggling w a boss on my own and having to learn it, it was too easy to just get help instead. in some way i'm glad i don't have that issue for DeS!

Dark Souls 1 >= Demon's Souls > Bloodborne = Dark Souls 3 > Dark Souls 2

same, except the multiplayer element clicked for me in DS3 more than ever before, which adds so much.

i used the wikidot a ton in Dark Souls but it didn't feel like it took anything away, it was a fun meta element where i'd be at the gym researching the area i just went through to see if i missed anything and figuring out how all the systems work.

I'm also anti bonfire teleportation from the get go. Loved how in the first Dark Souls you'd be down in damn Ashen Lake or something and get cursed or in over your head and you felt totally fucked and scared. Added a certain intensity. Helped you learn the world a lot better too, running back and forth. Was bummed about that concession in the later games.

One of the most painful experiences I had in a game was in DS1 trying to fight that hydra in Ashen Lake and being cursed and just completely unable to do it and then biting the bullet and fighting my way back up to the surface. Was super rough but exhilarating and typified what made the game so unique and refreshing. Games need heavier consequences, basically, but I feel like I've rattled on about that in other Souls threads.

Yesss, exactly. For me it was being at the bottom of Blighttown fighting Quelaag, and having already used up my humanity summoning Mildred, and being forced to actually learn all her moves and tells. Finally getting back up to Firelink and seeing the sunlight again was probably the best moment I've experienced in a game.

I also remember getting cursed in the Depths and having to fight my way out at half health to go get the purging stone, that was good too.

on that tip, there is no Homeward Bone in Demon's Souls, so if you find yourself carrying a lot of souls and low on health, it's do-or-die. there is a however spell that can warp you back home, it goes for 20k, i'm saving up for it now. this only takes a handful of runs through 4-1.

Shrine of Storms is amazing. for that i am glad this game is designed w teleportation from the start. windswept ruins littered with high-yield one-on-one skeleton battles, while malevolent manta rays are circling in the air above you, sniping you from the sky. the atmosphere in this game is incredible. i really like the early version of Blighttown. Valley of Defilement not only has one of the coolest videogame level names ever, it's really twisted and cool. the waterfall constantly running in the middle of this ascending spiral is such a cool design idea. it's claustrophobic in an evil yet cozy way.

really love Tower of Latria now that i have made more progress. the art design here is wonderful, and the lighting/shadow and colors are very vivid and surreal. this a giant proper dungeon, a deep green jail with Cthulu-headed sorcerers capable of one-hit electricity stun kills. there are stacks of coffins everywhere, and some rooms have iron maidens that you can open if you want to test your luck. then there is the giant steampunk machine that shoots arrows! getting by that is hard af. amazing level!

there is no Homeward Bone in Demon's Souls

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/shard-of-archstone

yeah i just found those damn rats. damn rats, giving me the plague!

made it to Leechlurker and was kicking butt w some fire spells but i fell off the ledge to my death like a fool

i love how you can hop over ledges/climb up little barriers in this. back in Boletaria i was running and reached the end of the hallway and my dude LEAPED OVER THE RAILING woah dude, this rules

magic is pretty sweet, i just got my 2 miracle slots, healing/evactuating all day long

defeated Storm King last night with the Storm Ruler sword. man, Dark Souls 3 referenced Demon's super hard, people don't even know...

i have left: 1-4 & False King boss fight and 3-3/3-4 plus Maneater/Old Monk boss fights. then the endgame stuff. i got to Maneater a while ago but that's one tough fight.

had a really rough weekend. my grandpa died on saturday and the funeral was sunday. sunday night i got home and played DeS for some video game record spinning cat petting soul love. defeated Maneater & Old Monk both in one go. both very fun battles! now I'm at 1-4 and it is really tough just getting through the level. there are these red phantoms i usually run past that are insanely difficult fights. one of them has a spear w a huge shield that ends up breaking all my equipment, and it's a struggle just to scrape together enough souls to repair. tried to parry to no avail. so i just run by them for now.

sorry about your grandpa Adam

yeah sorry to hear that man.

have you done everything else? i think 1-4 is the unofficial last level. certainly ime it was the hardest boss.

ty guys

i finally beat those three red phantoms so i'm closing in! think i've done everything else. there aren't any hidden levels are there?

secret boss: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/walk1-1-oldking

so THAT's where that door goes!

http://i.imgur.com/ZHRQZWw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/g9W8Z27.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DgP0YdX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/4jM9uHw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XIiqQWk.jpg

ah memories

http://i.imgur.com/3yBCTTKl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DKiqwETl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bWkfHbql.jpg

totally beating this game today. only King Allant (and whatever is after) remains, and i've fought him a few times, it seems a lot like the Artorias and Abyss Watcher boss fights.

so far its not going good. im having a hard time just getting up the stairs! at least they drop lots of Full Moon Grass.

fought him only a few times. his attacks are not that hard to anticipate/dodge but you can't afford to make many mistakes. once i got him to 10% and then i healed when i should've rolled.

i beat Demon's Souls late last night/early this morning. really love the ending, very mysterious. great final boss, cool final area and final final boss. Dark Souls tried to pull this off and flailed-failed spectacularly w the Bed of Chaos. no Izalith here - Demon's Souls is very consistently good throughout, maybe the most consistently good game in the series next to 3.

what great game, and great to play coming off Dark Souls 3, which in many ways pays homage to this first entry. Demon's is the essence of souls, it is all here, not even really that roughly, but in a very polished and realized state. it was truly a game-changer.

i would rank it above Dark Souls as a better game tbh. Dark Souls is much more cruel of a game and somewhat inconsistent in its second subterranean half. Dark Souls 2 is a weird spin off and 3 feels like the true sequel to Demon's Souls. one day i will have to buy a PS4 and play thru Bloodborne for the first time. :-p

this game is so good, the level select screen is one of the coolest most memorable areas in gaming.

i got the platinum for this, don't typically care for that sort of thing but i figured why not. pure bladestone took only abt 15 min of farming. so there's that

I don't either, but I did go the extra mile and platinum Dark Souls 1. Kind of a fun experience, but also one that you can fuck up easily and have to go through another play-through to rectify.

demon's souls online termination date feb 28, 2018 RIP

:O

THEY DIED

ive been playing this but never see anyone online. is this Japan servers only?

https://www.facebook.com/events/184088012171130/

demon's souls a game for sony playstation 5

they keep pulling me back in

Cool, I guess? If I had never played it I would be excited. But it's gonna take a brand new From game to get me to think about a new platform.

And in terms of pvp it's hard to imagine going back to the very beginning after all the refinements in the other games, but it would be cool if there some big changes (like finishing the cut content, and doing something more scrutable with the world tendency business).

xp

if they don't do some heavy reworking and expansion, i'll be shocked.

Demon’s is still my second favorite From game behind Souls 1 so I am very onboard with this.

Here's a question for everyone. The original Demon's Souls was released on the PS3, but skipped the PS4. All of the other Soulsborne games *did* make it to the PS4, but often with notoriously erratic performance, at least as far as video game nerds are concerned. Hence, Dark Souls gets remastered, DS2 updated/changed, or the way Dark Souls 3 later got optimized for PS4 Pro (iirc Bloodborne - the only PS exclusive - never got enhanced for Pro or changed in any way). All, iirc, were originally released at or at least aimed for 30fps, right? With 60fps an idealized goal of updates/mods/fixes and so on. So Demon's Souls is getting remade ... but only for the PS5, which is obviously more powerful than the PS3 and PS4. And yet, even with all the added power, the game will offer two modes, one that will focus on fidelity, and the other on frame rate, which implies it's still going to be pushing at the edges of the new system's capacity. The (buried) question is why is this not coming out for the PS4, which was capable of handling each of its From predecessors? What is it about this remake in particular, a remake of the *oldest* and one must assume most technologically primitive game in the series, that makes it suited to the PS5 but not the PS4? Or, for that matter, unable to provide *both* fidelity and frame rate? What makes it different from Sekiro, Bloodborne, Dark Souls et al that it needs PS5 specs (and even then an either/or sort of scenario), or is being it offered as a PS5 title just because, bypassing PS4 strategically rather than by necessity?

My understanding is that it's not technical, but that Sony owns the rights to it, so From/Bandai Namco couldn't do anything with it even if they wanted to.

Seems like it wasn't necessary for Sony to pull out for PS4 because they had Bloodborne as an exclusive and plenty of From games, but now they need some juice for the PS5 (and who knows what's going on with Elden Ring).

Dark Souls originally came out for PS3, right?

not just sony and namco and from, atlus also supposedly had rights to it because they were the north american distributors. this had been talked about ad nauseam by souls fans for years. don't know what changed to allow this to happen or if it really just was up to sony.

anyway remasters are dumb they should do demons souls 2. probably one of the only games that could spur me to buy a ps5 before they start showing up on craigslist for $75.

That's what I meant by "strategically," that it gives PS5 an exclusive with a built in fan base to immediately attract. Of course there is no reason it could not have been released on PS4 in some form, but I'm also wondering if what gets released on PS5 even *could* be released on PS4. That is, will it represent any sort of real, noticeable advance over what's come after the original Demon's Souls? I was looking at the Bloodborne wiki, and saw this: "Miyazaki had wanted ... everything to be as detailed as possible, and felt that such a game was only possible on eighth generation hardware. This need for high-end hardware, and the fact that the PlayStation 4 was presented to the company first, was the reason the game was a PS4 exclusive, rather than a cross-generation release." By all accounts Bloodborne was a lot more stable and detailed than Dark Souls, and Dark Souls III of course took advantage of those advances. So will Demon's Souls Redux be a step beyond Bloodborne/DS3/Sekiro to take advantage of PS5? I was just surprised to see a remade old game still not be able to hit both high graphics or frame rate benchmarks at the same time, you'd think the PS5 would be able to handle that (for example, Control is reportedly already being rejiggered for the new system to take advantage of new tech to better performance).

all games are released "strategically", they're products

i don't know anything about this remaster so i'll take you at your word regarding the two separate modes. the industry has prioritized fidelity over performance for decades because fidelity is what the industry decided to build video game marketing around from day 1. frame rate has always played second fiddle on consoles which are always going to have limitations. even now, 60 fps isn't really a good advertising point (a mid-range PC will always do better than that anyway) as much as it represents The Absence of Badness (30 fps), which isn't how you want to market a new console. and i imagine it doesn't really matter how much better the technology is on the ps5, consoles rarely get to the point where lowering frames doesn't allow for increased fidelity, and the industry will always go for increased fidelity when it's available. especially when marketing a new generation. the give and take between fidelity and performance isn't going away any time soon. and by the time 60 fps can truly be the new standard regardless of fidelity, studios will start aiming for 120, and the cycle begins anew.

sony/from releasing this game with two modes allows them to advertise increased fidelity, the #1 priority for a new console, while also providing comfort to the increasingly large subset of customers who reject 30 fps.

I don't think Dark Souls really had any stability issues?

And personally I don't care about frame rate, although going back and forth between Dark Souls Remastered and Dark Souls 3 was the first time I had seriously even noticed it, it takes your eyes some time to adjust going from 60 to 30 (or at least mine).

Even before I played the game I knew all about Blighttown.

xpost The dialectic I set up was strategic versus technology. That is, some games cannot run on some underpowered systems. Doom 2016 got ported to the Switch, but the latest Doom he is not going to the switch because the Switch can't handle it. It's not strategic.

Now, the new Ori being a Microsoft exclusive, that's more strategic, because its predecessor was ported to the Switch and this one isn't, afaik not because the Switch can't handle it, but because I presume Microsoft needs what few attractive exclusives it can get.

the latest doom is planned to be released on switch in the future. technology is rarely a limiting factor when there's money to be made. i don't know the story behind demon's souls being ported to ps5 instead of ps4 - the rights situation was notoriously complicated, as mentioned - but i can assure with i'd say............ 95% confidence that it was a business decision and difficulty porting to ps4 wasn't a factor.

Yeah it absolutely was a business decision. Souls is beloved and literally the only way you can play Demon’s is on PS3. It’s a minor “system seller” bump. Would be stupid to dump that on PS4 right now even though they likely totally could.

lol Josh you get so caught up in the weeds with this stuff sometimes

I mean, I get why it would be a business decision. But usually, as far as I can tell, initial games for a new powerful system are often there to show off the new powerful system. I was just wondering if they could possibly be tweaking this old game so much as to make its inclusion on PS5 justified as more than just a business decision, as a showcase, the same way, say, Shadow of the Colossus remake seemed designed to show off the PS4.

bloodborne was pretty important in establishing ps4 as the home of big exclusives, no surprise sony wants to go back to the well xp

As for stupid to drop on PS4, I was honestly surprised that Last of Us 2 was made for end of cycle PS4, because that actually seemed like an even more conspicuous lure for PS5. That and Samurai Ghosts.

I think that’s more of an issue of development time. That and Cyberpunk have been cooking for many years.

Just saying, I understand there have been delays, but we are so close to the launch of the new system and those two games seem so massively high profile you think they'd just wait a couple of more months. but I really have no idea why these companies do what they do when they do it.

I mean, I get why it would be a business decision. But usually, as far as I can tell, initial games for a new powerful system are often there to show off the new powerful system. I was just wondering if they could possibly be tweaking this old game so much as to make its inclusion on PS5 justified as more than just a business decision, as a showcase, the same way, say, Shadow of the Colossus remake seemed designed to show off the PS4.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, June 13, 2020 3:21 PM (fifty-three seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i guess i don't see the same dynamic you're seeing here

it might help to stop thinking about consoles entirely and imagine what a remastered demon's souls would look and perform like on a new high-end PC. porting from PC to ps4 or ps5 would be a downgrade in both cases - it would simply be more of a downgrade going to ps4, as the game would have to be further optimized to run on it, and it would have to be optimized even further to run at 60fps. publishers generally want their games to release with the best fidelity available on whichever platform they're releasing on. they are going to attempt to make the game as flashy and modern as they can on the ps5 because the business decision was made to port it to ps5. i might be talking in circles, sorry idk

i don't think SOTC was designed specifically to show off ps4 - it released 5 years after the ps4 launched and the system had already won the war by then. it was released for the same reason as every other ps4 game by that point

TLOU2 is releasing on ps4 because it's going to make a lot of money for sony that way and launch titles aren't actually important for most consoles. it'll probably get remastered and released for ps5 in a couple years when there's enough of an install base for it to make a lot of money again. people who bought it on ps4 will buy it again on ps5 because if a game is big enough the video game hype cycle can sell anything.

So why not do that with Demon's Souls, then?

because it's a much smaller project and hasn't been in development specifically for ps4 for like 5 years

I just assume they want to pull in Souls fans with a system-seller like they did with Bloodborne on PS4.

I know Elden Ring is supposed to come out on PS4, but it's hard to believe that will happen before PS5 is out anyway.

They should release the new Game of Thrones book as a PS5 exclusive.

Is Souls available in that subscription legacy ps3 service thing on the ps4?

Only in Japan, apparently?

they... ruined the cat ring icon in demon's souls
(left original, right remake)

uninstalling rn pic.twitter.com/GAAOKjNBgv

— Iron Pineapple (@IronPineapple_) November 13, 2020

RIP Demon's Souls

Watching some videos now, still find it hard to get excited about this. I don't really care about graphics (the original still looks fine to me), and it sounds like the mechanics are largely unchanged. I'm sure it would be cool if I hadn't played it already (and had a PS5, lol).

I watched some gameplay, because I was curious, and the better graphics were so smooth that nothing seemed to have any weight to it.

Playing the re-make on PS5 and it’s spectacular. Looks gorgeous, sounds and feels great, A+ production all around. Serious props to Bluepoint, immaculate, diligent work. I might struggle playing a From game at less than 60 FPS after this, the pleasure of that smoothness can’t be overstated.

Beyond that, the game just fucking holds up. I’ve always contended that Demon’s and Dark Souls 1 were the peak, but wondered if that was some rose tinted glasses thing. I don’t think it is, those games had a pace and sense of place that was kind of lost along the way.

I watched some gameplay, because I was curious, and the better graphics were so smooth that nothing seemed to have any weight to it.

I'm playing the remake. Never played the original but I love everything about this. I think I prefer it to Dark Souls and Bloodborne - it's just so perfectly satisfying.

I don't know what happened to Ostravo (is that his name?) I resuced him from 1-1 but he never turned up in 1-2 after I killed Phalanx. Bit annoying!

https://demonssouls.fandom.com/wiki/Ostrava_of_Boletaria

Yep, did the first bit but he never appeared where he was meant to in 1-2 The Lord's Path. No biggie, this sort of thing happens a lot in Souls games. Maybe he got killed on his way there or something.

The upgrade system is pretty complicated, but I'm just about getting my head around it. Despite upgrading my Falchion to +5 I realised I'd be better off using the Crescent Falchion as it deals magic damage, so I spent a while on Storm of Shrines just farming skeletons (I completed 4-1 early) and then buying stones from the merchant at the end and upgrading them with Blacksmith Ed. It's a lot to keep track of, which geezer does what, and I'm glad they kind of centralised it all in Elden Ring. Still, it's a challenge in itself to work all this stuff out yourself

Yeah, hence my "math is hard" comment on the "Armored Core" thread. Even after hundreds of hours of the Souls etc. games, at my best and most experienced I often feel like I am just barely grasping the mechanics, let alone the plots, and that's even while generally following guides. Some of the Souls nerds, they get so granular with the builds, but for me (as a one and done player) I always looked at the stats as means to an end. This boss is weak to fire, and in order to use fire you need x points in y attribute while wearing z helmet. Thus, boost those two stats and find the helmet to help with the boss.

I'm still slotting this remake in for winter gaming, along with TLOU2, though whether or not I start in on The Witcher 3 first will possibly impact my loose schedule.

Really loving this game. Definitely my favourite below Elden Ring. I've done the first level of each Archstone now and I'm currently trying to beat the Flamelurker.

Impressed at how well balanced this game is.

Dark Souls 1 has so much going for it but seems especially cruel in the way you can't fast travel from bonfires, currently landing me in Blightown with a rusty main sword.

Bloodborne, too, is great but also a bit fiddlesome, sprawling and kind of linear in a way.

Demon's just seems to get the difficulty juuust right. It's challenging, I'm always having to think very hard, there are some really tough parts, but I never feel stuck. I also enjoy the way the bosses so far haven't been tooooo difficult, which is useful as there's often a long run to precede them.

I enjoyed the design and pacing of Demon’s Souls and rate it highly considering that it was “the first of its genre”

I got frustrated with the oddly unsatisfying scaling crossed with extreme difficulty of subsequent playthroughs

Played this all day today. Beat the Dragon God and the boss that's two massive gargoyles. Managed to get pure white tendency on two archstones and grabbed some neat power ups. Still a bit miffed about Ostravo. I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to get PWT on Boletaria

I know so little about "Demons Souls" that literally nothing in that post rings a bell. Psyched to dive in, eventually.

Oh blimey I've played so much of this now, I'm surprised to find I'm getting to the last stretch already.

My friend got this at the start of the weekend and she's already beaten the Tower Knight and Armoured Spider. It took me much longer to get that far

I think I'm diving into this as soon as I finish "Guardians." Now, I've never played a From game blind, because there is soooooo much shit I would miss or mess up that would I think negatively impact my enjoyment (and for that matter, they're generally hard enough even with guides and other help). But this being the first Souls game, is that true even from the start? Like, if you kill the thing at the place in the other place, that will affect whether or not you can do the thing at the other place much later in the game?

lol, I think this may be the hardest to play blind, at least if you don't want to miss too much. It's been awhile, but my memory is that they were happy to be esoteric on this one. On the other hand, I didn't really bother with 'world tendency', but the difficulty and knowledge curve still felt pretty steep without looking up a few things. Haven't played the remaster though.

I assume the remaster is otherwise exactly the same, right? I glanced at a guide already, and it outright says that apparently this one can't be 100%ed with one play, it needs multiple plays to get 100%. Of course, I never 100% anything, even though I know there are multiple endings to a bunch of them, but it implies there is stuff to be missed. Like, Sekiro, if I hadn't been following a guide I never would have known about all this late game stuff a certain path would take me, though in that case I didn't bother, because shit was getting *too* esoteric and challenging, and I'd had enough, lol.

Yeah, a blind playthrough could be fun if you just forget about world tendency and don't care about 100%-ing, only use the guide if you hit a wall (I know I banged my head on 4-1 for quite awhile, although I think I was fruitlessly trying to farm some rare upgrade material).

I've played this through more or less blind, only looking up tips and hints occasionally if I'm stuck or curious.

But recently I was compelled to go back and restart Elden Ring with a fresh game, this time starting as a Wretch

See, I'm kind of an anxious gamer, especially when it comes to these games. If I made it a substantial way through the game before realizing I'd be better off restarting, I probably would just quit the game rather than play through it all over again. I'd likely do the same even if the game crashed and I lost a save or something. I was watching some Elden Ring gameplay over the weekend, and there was so much I'd already forgotten that came flashing back that immediately put to rest any (pressing) desire to replay it. I was, like, wow, what a huge pain in the ass that part was, lol.

I think dl means replay, not restart in the middle of a playthrough. I think the worst that can happen in this game is that you leave a world in order to go farm grass somewhere else, and return when you're stocked up?

I also remember liking the structure once I got used to it, where you're meant to do the starting level of each different world when you're low level, rather than progressing all the through one before moving on to the next. That's how I remember it, anyway.

I played Elden Ring as a wretch on my first play through and it ruled. Every random drop felt like mana from heaven

@ Josh I don't recommend you play Demon's Souls entirely blind. The world tendency/character tendency mechanic is weird, frankly, and it's better you have some foreknowledge about it to spare yourself later frustration.

In a nutshell, it is attractive to "restore your humanity" (or whatever the game calls it, I forget at this time), so that your HP bar is restored. In practice, however, dying on a world while "human" has a negative effect on your tendencies, and it should be avoided. It is common practice to suicide yourself after every boss in the hub before moving on to the next world to prevent this eventuality.

Beyond that, idk, you could play blind, but Demon's Souls (more than other From games) does benefit from some guidance.

Prior to Elden Ring's release, I rated Demon's Souls far more favourably than a lot of other From enthusiasts, on the basis of Boletaria Castle alone. I still think 1-1 through 1-5 is one of From's greatest achievements and think of it as being as phenomenal as later community favourites (The Ringed City, Leyndell)

XPS yes, sorry, I meant re-play.

Demon's Souls does have a few "you should really kill this guy, he's bad news" moments. But I thought Dark Souls was a lot tougher and easier to make interminable mistakes in

I've never played the original but Demons Souls Remake turned out to be loads more fun than I expected. I rate it above Bloodborne and Dark Souls of the ones I've played.

It's strange going back to Elden Ring and thinking "You know what, this is maybe my favourite game of all time, but there are things that Demon's Souls does better or which are missing from this one". One example is the boss fights, which while none of them are especially hard, tend to be a lot more memorable

i'm playing dark souls 1 on ps3 for the first time now. i'm really bad at these games, the only other one i've played is demons souls which i ragequit after a couple days stuck on temple knight. i'm improving slowly and really enjoy it though. the battles are insane. i beat chaos witch queelag the other day and it was so satisfying. i look stuff up constantly without shame

I feel like Elden Ring got the inventory/stats mechanics down pat, finally, every weapon feels usable and worthwhile

Dark Souls has the best first half but such a tedious second half that I grind my teeth thinking about playing through it again

Dark Souls 3 remains spectacular. If I had a steampunk gene in me I might like Bloodborne more… the main game pretty much ruled but the labyrinths were annoying and bad

It’s interesting, I realized recently that so much of Elden Ring’s appeal (for me) was the inventory management stuff, which felt very much like an old school roguelike. Managing stats and optimum gear like gaming is just data processing, very appealing. I got back into ADOM as my dn might indicate

this game is the best

Seriously, DO NOT READ WALKTHROUGHS OR FAQs for this; this game is absolutely about fear and discovery and immersion. I read one thing about magic and it sorta spoiled the moment later. Just figure stuff out.

― I AM NOT ONE TO PURSUE GAME, MY FRIEND - NO, INDEED. (forksclovetofu), Monday, November 2, 2009

Alright, here we go! (Quickly dies to first boss.)

you're doing it right!

I am not used to a From game looking this good, I'm finding it kind of distracting (is the excuse I'm going with). Anyway, unlocked my first shortcut.

Haha, yeah it does look pretty great, even compared to ER. Funny as well because most of the scenery is a variation on "grim stoney rainswept medieval fort" but somehow they manage to make it look stunning

I'm so used to a certain degree of From janky, but this is so smooth. What's wrong with my game, it's totally broken!

I was kinda sad that Elden Ring didn’t have the same extreme dialogue-following face behaviour. Patches just doesn’t hit as hard in Elden Ring!

Yeah, in my reply I'm sad Patches isn't totally demonic

*replay

So, in my totally early hours, what should I be spending souls on? Or should I be saving them up? I haven't fought any real boss yet, just getting used to fighting various scrubs and/or getting two shotted by the knight with red eyes.

I dunno. Might depend on what build you've got. I found I naturally ended up putting points into things once I had a particular weapon in mind. I wouldn't scrimp on Endurance for this game, is the thing I would say, because item and equipment load are a real thing I'm constantly aware of

Yeah, the more things change ...

Anyway, I'm so early I'm not sure I can even level up yet.

Beat the first boss, got a taste of a couple of the worlds. Gonna focus on upping my stats for a bit, at least while I get used to the gameplay. Kind of fascinating to me that From has been doing similar variations on the same impenetrably esoteric fantasy world for so long, with I guess Bloodborne and Sekiro the biggest digressions. I should look up some reviews of the original Demon's Souls release, must have blown/broken some minds.

Tower Knight down! Is every path to a boss a run? Are there ever checkpoints/bonfires in this?

There are no checkpoints, iirc? Oftentimes you can open a shortcut though. Tower Knight is such a great boss!

The big "oh" was realising that the original Demon's Souls release did not have any gear-option to make the swamp area navigable... you had to slog through and suffer. The reissue brought in a (still, fairly well-hidden) ring to make it less of a blargh. It's probably my favourite swamp level! But I can't imagine doing it without a ring

I've been playing a bit of Dark Souls 1 again recently. The boring sections seem less boring now, mostly because I guess I know just to motor on through. Blighttown is actually pretty charming this time around!

a lot of the games and levels kind of blend together for me now, lol. I bet if I played them all a second time I'd be really surprised by how much I've forgotten.

Lost my first substantial chunk of souls doing something stupid, serves me right.

Man, it took me FOREVER to get throug hto the Tower Knight and beat him. Think I bounced off and did another world first. Then someone told me you can actually run the whole of the bridge without doing all that fiddling about in the underground route

It's been awhile but yeah I think some of the 'stage 3' bosses have runbacks, but others put you right at the boss. Luckily most of them aren't too long, or have shortcuts you can unlock.

I played this on a borrowed PS3 and definitely remember Miyazaki's first poison swamp, it was almost touching how unforgiving it was. It made for some good tense moments though, trying to get some item or reach a checkpoint before succumbing. Didn't know they added a ring in the remaster!

xpost That was my belated realization, too. I was so sick of the underground route, and the dogs, and the tedium. But then I realized I can just let the dragon do my dirty work and make a run for it. And then later, in true Souls fashion, spend 15 minutes shooting it with arrows from a safe perch until I killed it.

Giant spider down! I love how from the very start, From is begging the question: is it really cheesing if they provide the means to cheese? Which is to say, if enemies can hide and hit you from range, is it wrong to do the same to them in a game that gives you bows, magic, etc? (The answer: hell no, whatever it takes, if I want to do a future naked and afraid run of any of these games, I will).

Those bloody dogs in the tunnel though

Serious Bloodborne Unseen Village vibes in the spooky prison, with lightning and mindflayers/brainsuckers and atmosphere. It would be awesome if Blueprint remade Bloodborne, but I doubt it'll happen.

Aw man, that was one of my favourite bits of the game.

I surprise myself that I enjoy levels like that and also Stormveil in Elden Ring, because my IRL sense of direction is awful and I get lost and disoriented really easily. I'm really bad at observing landmarks. But there's something about the super-windy architecture of these places that really hits my buttons

I got lost sooooo much. At one point I fell down a deep hole and died, but had so many souls it made it worth my while to retrieve them, and it took me *forever* to find my way back. I do kinda like when that happens, though, because you run the level so many times and kill everything so many times, that when you finally get your bundle of souls you end up with a huge total. Then you level up, though it's hard to take your revenge on gravity.

i've been playing demon's souls for the first time for the past month or so. as i live in a state of playstationlessness i am playing the 2009 version thanks to rpcs3 and online via the archstones. i have a patch so it can run at 60 unmotion-blurred buttery smooth frames per second.

i've made my way through all the x-1's and x-2's, and i was trying not to use guides, but i broke that rule so i could figure out how to access 1-3. i know from the king's field days a bit of from software apocrypha that they want players to use guides (and take advice from online messages where possible) but it's been a nice playing nearly totally unguided. it makes the world feel a bit more overwhelming and a lot more full of wonder. but it has also meant i've killed more npc's than ever before - patches after the pit, the person who drops gloom armour in a cage above the swamp in 4-1 - and meant i've just lost other npc's - the glowing gold fella in 1-1 - and that i'm basically still using the equipment that i started with or found early on. oh also wtf is world tendency. maybe after i beat the game i'll have a read about that before ng+ or re-rolling.

playing on emulator also means i can pause if needed, which honestly, is a nice addition to the gameplay. it's not something i use very often but i love being able to just pause if needed. also the archstones tracks your deaths for you which is fun.

boletaria and latria are some from highlights for me, just remarkably designed, so many times in my first 1-1 run through boletaria where i knew that as i turned a corner i'd end up on a balcony looking back where i came from, just a lovely and well thought out experience.

oh also wtf is world tendency

i've looked it up multiple times and still don't know lol

i love boletaria and think about if often

Moving right along in this and having fun. Seems ... slightly more forgiving than its successors? Maybe? It's neat to see what From kept and tweaked and what they discarded for later games. And of course there is the amusing cognitive dissonance of the first game being essentially the most technologically advanced. Though I will say, as much as I like the graphics and loading times, my fave advance of the PS5 may remain the controller. It's both cool and helpful to have status effects conveyed via haptics; in the middle of frenetic boss battles I often find myself missing whether or not, say, my weapon is still on fire or glowing or whatever, but this way I can actually feel it while I'm focusing on other stuff.

Being able to hear audio in 3D is also a major boon. In 1-3 I could hear the red-eye knights before I could see them

Dragon God boss ruled, reminded me of an "Ori" boss level. Not hard, as such, but stressful and totally epic/metal.

Well, pretty sure I just killed my first NPC. I was in the first zone (1/3?), where I killed a fat guy and unlocked a gate, and it opened up to a rush of red eyed knights that I quickly slaughtered in a panic. But one of them I suspect was my guy. Serves him right for dressing like the baddies, the big dummy. Hopefully I didn't screw up anything major.

In another zone I almost killed Patches. I thought he was a devil monster thing, and because he was hiding behind a shield I didn't see his face (with all my wild melee technique) until it was almost too late.

I take it back, he's not dead! Must have slipped past me in the heat of battle and hid, the coward.

Lol just got to that guy. You already saved him twice! Cruel to end him there!

I put this down for 6 months after dying in that poison swamp, not from poison but by 5 giants guarding an item I now acknowledge I will never get. This is definitely the most forgiving souls game, finding it very very easy right now (comparatively).

I think I’m nearly done? Have four arch stones in every zone except the 1st. I’m scared of this final boss because I saw him drain Dunkey’s levels back to like zero. Is that a real mechanic? Will be so pissed if it is.

Okay he doesn’t drain all your levels, but I just got two taken off me on my first try. Rough

Okay he doesn’t drain all your levels, but I just got two taken off me on my first try. Rough

I think we're around the same place. That said I stopped playing for some reason and picked ER back up becauser.... I just really don't want to play the gloomy swamp level :-/

Most annoying thing (relatively) about this game so far? The way they stick the merchants in these hard to reach places. So much BS I don't want to deal with just to get back to the person that sells ... whatever. Definitely a QOL improvement in subsequent games.

well i finished an initial run through. it took me about 20 hours, i died 11 times (!??!?), had a soul level of 59. i agree with H.P a few posts above, i found it a lot less punishing than any of the other from souls games, and ended up with an enormous stock pile of moon grasses by the end game. i wonder if the remake involved tuning the difficulty. i guess i should go and read what mechanics were changed about the game, and maybe in a decade when you can reliably emulate ps5 games, i'll have a run through of it.

i started ng+ - only because the game immediately yeets you into it - and the damage done by even the 1-1 wee guys is drastically different. i'll probably play through it more slowly, and maybe look some things up (how do i get the blue screaming guy out of gaol) but i'm also going to go back to king's field iv for the first time in maybe 20 years.

I’m scared of this final boss because I saw him drain Dunkey’s levels back to like zero.

Obv Dunkey was playing it up, but I remember facing him my first couple of attempts and losing two levels, which meant I could no longer cast Firestorm (which is laughably OP in the original version of the game, iirc), and having to grind my way back up.

20 hours and 11 You Dieds is very good going for a first run I'd say

Last couple of bosses, Penetrator (?) and Maneater twins, have come closest to subsequent Souls level of aggro.

i die 11 times min each time i sit down to play lol

11 You Dieds startled me, tbh. I can offer no explanation. I'd guess 8 of those 11 happened at Maneater

I found NG+ on Demon’s Souls to be so punishing that I left quickly

xpost I'm shocked that you didn't get more You Dieds due to gravity or other environmental stuff alone. Soul level 59 is kinda modest too, isn't it?

re: soul level, I've no idea, I don't know where one is expected to be by the end of a play through, I just quickly searched and it seems like the internet wisdom is a conventional sl by the end of a first run is ~70, so I don't seem too far off? I know spent a LOT of souls buying shards and large shards and chunks and honeslty just generally anything else whenever I came across a merchant only to use the same crescent falchion +4 that i spent most of my run using, save for the final fight where I switched to a claymore +6. that guy who loves to hold onto your stuff in the nexus has hundreds and hundreds of shards n' chunks in a wealth of flavours in his pockets.

re: minimal number of You Dieds due to gravity or environment that was what happened during a number of maneater fights but outside of that i can't recall many times that environment deaths would seem like an issue? i remember the wall hugs of 4-1 or 2 but there's not a ton of enemies and so not so much risky rolling. I also basically only played for 30-45 minutes a day so daily progress was minimal and I feel like that restriction worked well for cautious shield up exploration. Go forward a bit -> look around -> kill a gargoyle -> quit for the day -> repeat

Yeah, I can see that. I guess a lot of my environmental deaths came trying to reach some intentionally precariously placed item on a ledge, or rushing into an area only to be overwhelmed by enemies. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm impressed you made it past such early PIA enemies as the mindflayers relatively unscathed. Then again, not only is this game generally more forgiving than the others, it's particularly forgiving to ranged combat, and if one is already playing patiently, a good bow goes a long way!

I've been generally following a guide, so I'm attuned to the whole tendency thing, which is of course impenetrable but afaict does demand several deaths (in human form) just to switch the status of the world back and forth.

Soul level 75 on finish today. This goes just bellow blood borne on my personal fromsoft tier list (maybe equally dark souls?). Insane this game got made and blew up like it did, such a stand-alone piece in the gaming world at the time, beautiful that it gained the traction that it did. Give me demons souls 2!

Serious question because I've only dipped my toes into the Dark Souls games proper, but what stops Dark Souls from being, essentially, Demons Souls 2?

They're all essentially the same game, imo, with subtle differences (largely refinements) in gameplay. I haven't finished Demon's Souls yet, but so far it's more or less the same as Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3. Elden Ring is kind of like the apotheosis of Souls games, minus (by necessity) the tight level/progression design. So yeah, I don't know how a Demon's Souls 2 would be any different, more or less, from a Dark Souls 4. Now, a Bloodborne 2 ...

as discussed elsewhere (probably at some length!) DS2 and Sekiro are the weird runts of the litter, the former because Miyazaki was not involved and it's baggy and a bit poorly staged and paced, the latter because it's set in a recognisable though warped version of ancient Japan and focusses very much on the parrying mechanic in combat. Personally I sometimes think Sekiro is the best of the lot...

Sekiro is the biggest deviation by far. Only one weapon, the parry/posture system, the setting, the lack of a DLC, etc. Sekiro is the only one I stopped short of truly completing, because I found it kind of exhausting, though I can totally see why some would consider it the best. Certainly the combat is probably the most finely tuned.

I don't know how I would necessarily rank them all at this point, since they all have their pros and cons. Even DS2, its relative jankiness in many ways helps set it apart!

I am very intrigued by Sekiro. I have DS2 bought during a sale but only gave it a quick cursory go before dying to the first enemy I encountered. Some of the exposition was a bit "lol" in that, well, it was exposition and I'm not used to that in Souls games. Having three Weird Sisters cackling about how many times you're going to You Died felt really jarring and a true sign it wasn't a Miyazaki project. Still, I know it has its protractors and many people will exalt it above DS3

Sekiro never seems to be available for cheap, does it?

I think (like a lot of From games) it's never gone much below $20 or $25 or so.

I loved DS3, though have forgotten a lot of it. DS2, I want to say a huge challenge in that one is that the iirc many (all?) enemies have seemingly infinite aggro range, so you can't just zip past everything unless you want to lead a parade of baddies that want to kill you.

It was a bit of a shock going into DS1 straight from Elden Ring, I will say. Those skeletons near the firelink shrine sure like to chase you for AGES!

yeah, in an open world it's almost always an option to just run away!

Serious question because I've only dipped my toes into the Dark Souls games proper, but what stops Dark Souls from being, essentially, Demons Souls 2?

― the forces of darkness making making us laugh ourselves into DEATH?? (dog latin), Monday, March 6, 2023 9:05 AM (four hours ago)

I think Demon's Souls being a PS exclusive kinda tied their hands a little bit, like if they wanted to make multi-platform games going forward they'd have to create a new franchise. So Dark Souls is more/less Demon's Souls 2 in everything but name.

Funny seeing this thread right near the De La Soul thread in New Answers.

De La Soul is You Died

(NB: that was a play on the album title "De La Soul Is Dead" btw, not a bas-taste joke on recent events)

xxp otm

sony own both demon's souls and bloodborne, which is why the former got a new paint job for ps5 without from's involvement. i don't know if from has any vetoing power over what sony chooses to do with DeS/BB

demons souls ps5 is kinda too nice imo.. i love the aesthetic of the ps3 games