A Look Back on Demon's Souls · 1:49pm Mar 8th, 2015
It's a few more weeks before Bloodborne comes out. The excitement I feel about MLP season 5 is but a mild curiosity compared to how hyped I am over this game. It doesn't have the word "Souls" in it, but I'm counting it a part of the Souls series anyway. A version of Dark Souls 2 is also coming out on the PS4 this April. I'll be getting that too. In all honesty, I haven't played the DLCs for Dark Souls 2 because I knew they were going to do something like this. They did it for Oblivion, Fallout: New Vegas, and Skyrim. I knew they were going to release a version that would have all the DLCs. I didn't expect it to have a version on the next gen, but it's a welcome addition.
If you are a reader of discerning perception, you may have noticed the very subtle clues in my stories that point to the fact that I fucking love the Souls games. With Legacy and Journey in the works, I can't wait to throw in the references I've planned. Count on Bloodborne being included too. As I wait for the days to count down for my newest Souls fix, I look back to the one that started me on it.
Oh, Demon's Souls, the game often forgotten when talking about the Souls games. The first game was a game of firsts for me. I've been playing games for a long time. Started with a Famicom, then a Sega Genesis, then SNES, then Playstations 1,2, and 3 at that point, but Demon's Souls still had firsts.
This was the first game that really made me feel genuine regret over something I did in a video game. I remember it well. I had just killed the Adjudicator and a huge number of souls accumulated from multiple attempts to complete 4-1. I should have gone back to the Nexus and spent them. I didn't. I pushed on and made it through 4-2, up to the part where there were narrow ledges you had to walk around while purple-eyed shadow men fired lasers at you. I made a mistake while dodging and rolled off to my death. Oh, the panic set in. That was over 50k souls! I could buy a lot of shit with that! I had to make it to my bloodstain and retrieve them. My fingers got clumsy with nervousness so it happened. As I approached the cave where I died, I missed the parry timing with a golden skeleton. My poor knight ate a giant sword swing while flying manta rays shot spikes at her ass. Why? I would lament. Why did I push on after clearing 4-1? What spirit of arrogance possessed me when I made that stupidly reckless decision? A lesson was learned that day even as those souls went down the drain. Good thing it wasn't too hard to farm souls in 4-2 anyway.
And the first rage. Oh, I've been frustrated by some games before, but this was my first rage. 4-1 at Pure Black World Tendency. It was me against black phantom Satsuki. His katana killed with one hit, even the one-handed light attacks. I had to be on point with my rolls. That wasn't the bad part though. Once he was down to about a quarter of his life, Satsuki would start to back away to munch on his infinite supply of New Moon Grass. One success would instantly refill his life. I had him down to almost dead, nearly eating it several times myself because he'd bait me into going after him to interrupt his heal only to attack. He started to back away and I chased, but that terrain...a rock caught my knight's foot, and locked her in place for about a second. Satsuki completed his munching and was back at full health. I wasn't stupid enough to damage my controller, but I was stupid enough to hurt my knuckles by punching the wooden floor. FUCK YOU, SATSUKI. FUCK YOUR ONE HIT KILL ATTACKS, AND FUCK YOUR CHEAP ASS GRASS.
And the atmosphere...I loved Demon's Souls use of dark and silence. There's no BGM, but you'll soon find that a blessing as you'll need both sharp eyes and ears exploring this game. In Latria, you'll be pinpointing the faint chimes carried by the octopus-headed guards so you can close in without alerting them. In Valley of Defilement, there's the groans of the deprived ones skulking about somewhere, just waiting to mob you if you blindly push on. In the Shrine of Storms, there's the giggling from the shadow women trying to backstab you if you're lured by the crap loot they leave on the ground.
Oh, sure it wasn't all awesome and perfect. Dragon God was a horribly disappointing boss. The monster featured in the intro and the cover art, the giant multi-eyed dragon that punched my knight in the face after I killed the tutorial boss, is reduced to a brief stealth section where I shaved off 3 quarters of its life. Then, while it lay limply on the ground, I plinked away at it with a bow while it occasionally burped fire. The World Tendency feature was frustratingly cryptic to puzzle out and you needed to puzzle it out or be locked out of the in-game quests. Trying to upgrade your weapons was a puzzle in itself and an annoying chore of walking back and forth between merchants. The game encouraged grinding, an aspect of any RPG that I hated. This is especially if you fuck up on the easily missed crystal lizards. Of course, as a paladin build, I had to grind for faintstones, which meant multiple visits to 5-2; a poisonous swamp where I was slowed to a crawl while being pestered by giant mosquitoes and leeches that dropped very few souls.
I played Demon's Souls again recently, as some kind of retrospective play while waiting for Bloodborne. It's kind of sad that the game once touted as insanely difficult is now cakewalk to a Souls veteran, but it's to be expected.
As an extra: I do have Demon's Souls references in my stories. They're very few, but they're there.
As an extra extra: Here's my favorite playthrough of Demon's Souls on Youtube.
Personally, I never played Demon's, as the first Dark Souls was my introduction to the Souls series and I've spent all my time since then trying to master that one game (currently on a co-op NG+ playthrough with a bro of mine), but damn if I can't relate. I think my equivalent experience for a first massive souls loss must've been in Anor Londo, where I lost something like 70K after getting careless with the giant sentinels one too many times. And then there was dark Anor Londo...
Gotta say, though, I don't think Dark Souls had particularly difficult black phantoms, at least not if we're both talking NPC invaders and "black phantom" doesn't mean something different in Demon's. Kirk, Mildred, Jeremiah, Leeroy and Chester were all pretty easy kills IMO.
Your making me want to play demon souls real bad man...
This urge will be the death of me...
Yeah I remember being in college when Demon's Souls came out. Between myself and my three other roommates there wasn't a moment that someone wasn't playing that game. This ultimately led to many memorable moments, that helped forge my love for the series.
I'll never forget the look of horror on my roommate's face when he had his first encounter with a Scraping Spear PVP invader. He lost the fight and had to spend a fortune repairing his equipment. Man that shit was busted.
Still at the time it was a very refreshing experience for a game to not coddle you like some uncoordinated moron. This really helped exemplify the feeling of accomplishment a player felt when they finally achieved victory. Hell I felt like a goddamn cryptographer after deciphering the convoluted user interface.
Thinking back on it, my favorite area in the game was probably the nexus. There was something about how the Maiden in Black's quiet prayers mixed with the melancholy background music. It always washed away the stress that came from exploring each level, if only for a few precious moments.
But I digress, Bloodborne's imminent release is a very exciting prospect. The use of a Gothic aesthetic, mixed with some top notch monster design is pure eye candy. I cannot wait to dive in when it finally drops at the end of the month.
I found Demon's Souls to be unplayable for me once I realized that I would never get past even the first level. I can't get into their other games, either. I dislike too much difficulty in video games; I play games to relax and have fun. I don't mind some difficulty here and there, especially if there's a decent reward at the end. But I can't tolerate games that are just plain stressful.
I recently got Demon's Souls and cheated the duplicated the shit out of the souls I picked up. I'm one of those scumbags
. I'm enjoying the game greatly.
The World Tendency is irritating as hell. Bloody servers keep it at White all around and I need to log out to affect it at all.
The item burden is one of the worst things ever for me because in Video Games Im a massive hoarder. I love to pick up all the things.
These problems aren't going to stop me enjoying it though. The Dragon God is infinitely better than the Bed of Chaos. I like farming for stuff but the duping is putting out of it a bit so I'll have to get back into the mindset (need a guillotine axe so bad I'm willing fight Miralda again). I find the idea of people inadvertently worshipping the great destroyer of worlds to be the funniest thing I've ever heard. I find the AI pathing to be hilarious as I watch a conga line of enemies jump at me only to fall to their deaths in an orderly manner.
It's like playing Dark Souls but way clunkier XD I love this game. It was a stepping stone that managed to make its mark in history.
Now! To go get my Moonlight Greatsword upgraded! Away!