DEMON'S SOULS A GAME FOR SONY PLAYSTATION 3

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!