Gaming weekly W4: Demon’s Souls
Tuesday, January 26, 2010Okay I bet you guys that you’re still wondering why I haven’t written about Mass Effect 2 yet, it’s because I’m staying away from the game to keep it as fresh an experience can get when I get the game. But today I’m going to talk about Demon’s Souls. Demon’s Souls is a third-person hardcore dark fantasy themed RPG exclusive to the PS3, it was developed by From Software also known for the Armored Core-series and has their publisher logo on other games like Tenchu and Ninja Blade. The game has only been released in the NTSC-area, meaning in America and the Asian-countries. I’ve been playing this game(american-import) for 15 or so hours and it’s amazing if you like this type of gameplay.
Into the dark abyss where souls wander
The story of this game is pretty easy to get, the game starts after King Allant XII’s serach for power and prosperity, to get this he channeled the power of souls. Little did he know what fiends he would unleash, his kingdom of Boletaria prospered until a thick a colorless fog started to cover the lands, cutting of the kingdom from the outside world. The king had awakened the Old one, a great beast below the Nexus and from its awakening bringing soul-craving demons. It is said that the ones who have lost their souls also lost their minds. Chaos followed, the mad attacking the sane and the demons grew more powerful with each soul the devoured. Eventually people outside heard of the news and warriors came from different lands to enter the fog but never to return.
That’s it basically. Demon’s Souls is a dark game, a dark awesome and hardcore game. The game is punishing as hell but rewarding thanks to its difficulty. The player controls the main character, a warrior trying to gain fame, fortune or just wants to beat the hell out of demons. The game lets the players customize their character to their liking, it could be a male or a female, of different race. You can go into more detailed customization and tinker away with haircolor, eyecolor and facial features. Choosing a player class is what is difficult in this game, knowing what to be and what lies ahead is always hard. I’m still on my first character and I have yet to finish the game, I have a long way to go still. My character is based on Strength, Vitality and Endurance, he’s a melee character with a little bit of magic knowledge to keep him varied.
My character wields a claymore and a shield and a mix of light and heavy armor to keep him fast enough to dodge attacks. I’m using a shield since the lighter shields allows for parrying and counter-attacks, when pressed in the right moment you can deflect you enemy’s attack and deliver a devastating counter attack. In the end you can be whatever you want, a mage, a shield and longsword wielding character, a two-handed wielding character, a ranged character using a bow or a crossbow, a sneaky assassin character using daggers or swords. All classes have their ups and downs, and there are enough weapons types to go around. The only trouble is knowing where you should put your upgrade points, but that’s something you’ll either learn online or by trying it out yourself.
People of the Demon’s Souls community say that the first character you create should be a character that you find interesting, since it’s with that character you’ll learn the ins and outs of the game. When you’re starting your second one you can specialize more since you have the necessary knowledge. Demon’s Souls is pretty much an infinite game, you can finish the game and start a new game+ and after that new game++ and so on , you still keep all your stuff that you’ve gathered when starting a new game with the same character.
Learning the game
Demon’s Souls is dark and grim game, traps luring around every corner, a lot of enemy ambushes and souls wander about. These white human souls that one might see in the game is actually other players, the game is a singleplayer game with a multiplayer component, even though you’re alone you’re still seeing other players walking around. Sometimes you might even find pools of blood lying about then you know that the area might be dangerous, these blood pools are from the other players, indicating what area they died in, you can walk over one of the blood splashes and activate it and it will show a short sequence of how the player died. There is also a hint-system that players use, it’s a system of pre-determined messages that you can leave for other players to let them know of any danger that they should be aware of. Other players can then recommend your message if it helped them, if your message gets recommended you get a small boost to your health.
The main thing about Demon’s Souls is the gathering of souls, souls are the currency of this game. You go about slaying demons and what not then you come back to the Nexus (the starting hub-world that let’s you go to the other worlds) to trade and deposit items. One thing to note is that you’re only able to buy stuff not sell, so the left-over items and weapons you’ve found during your quest you’ll have to deposit and store. Gathering souls will also help you level up, after the first few missions you’ll be able to upgrade your character.
The world of Demon’s Souls will take you to different worlds, but they all have the same grim feeling , some more than others. The game is punishing for those who rushes into situations too fast and rewarding for them who walks about carefully and planning their next move. The game is about learning enemy weaknesses, attack patterns and location, the game is about finding the character setup that you want to play and how to make that effective. It’s a lot to learn and that’s probably the only aspect that I think this game fails a bit, there is a lot to learn, as a player you’ll have a thousand questions but the answers given by the game are very limited. You’re better off getting your questions answered online.
Demon’s Souls is a great game, I’ve had a great time with it so far, it kind off makes me want to hold off on Mass Effect 2 for another time. It’s that good, I can understand why both Gametrailers and Gamespot gave it the GOTY-award. If you’re interested at all in this type of game you should probably look it up.
Good thing you reminded me of this. Gotta get this game one day.
I think the difficulty might drive me away from completing it. But its still a game that I feel that I need to have in my collection.
Great text as always, its always a joy to read. =)
@Yazuka
Thanks man, yeah it’s a really good game, slow-paced and punishing. I think that either you love it or you hate it for its gameplay.