Why do I keep playing Demon’s Souls? That’s a question I’ve asked myself over and over all this week. This game is brutal. There is no release with this game, no stop, no time to take a breather, no letting up. From the time you begin the tutorial to the first time you die, and the second and third and so on, the game is relentless in it’s difficulty. I literally spent five hours playing the first level…
Why do I keep playing Demon’s Souls? Find out, after the jump.
I picked this game up, based on some hype and good faith in Japanese publisher Atlus, who is famous for obscure Japanese role playing games (Persona series, Devil Summoner Series, Odin Sphere, Growlanser, etc…) that are hard to find in American game stores.
When I read about Demon’s Souls and saw some video of the gameplay, I was immediately impressed. A third person RPG hack and slash style game with great graphics, and you fight Dragons? I’m in. Well, the game came out last Tuesday and after reading the stellar reviews, I almost decided against buying it.
Why? Because of the universal chorus of reviewers flat out stating that the game is punishingly difficult. I think almost every review I read had those two words, “punishingly difficult” somewhere in their review. At first, part of me said, to hell with the reviewers, they’re a bunch of whiny babies anyway, how bad could it be. The other part of my brain said, do I have time to play a “punishingly difficult” RPG? All that said, I did buy it and it is “punishingly difficult.”
And yet it consumes me. Before we get to why it’s good, lets get down to the basics of what makes the game so hard. How does a game that is described as “punishingly difficult” get universally high review scores?
There are a few very basic things that make this game difficult. First, the tutorial doesn’t tell you squat. Sure, it will show you a few basic things like how to kill stuff and pick stuff up, but that’s such a small part of the whole game that it’s almost insulting that the tutorial is so shallow. Furthermore, the tutorial ends with you fighting a boss fight. That’s not so bad, but leading up to the boss fight, you were basically invulnerable as you fought the tutorial baddies. The boss fight, on the other hand, comes out of nowhere, resulting in a tutorial that leaves you with more questions than answers.
For most players, the boss will likely kill you, sending you to the “Nexus” this is where you’ll learn more about the game while you’re in a spectral or ghost form. While in your ghost form you lose about half your hit points. Even worse, the only way to get your body back is to go forth and kill a Demon, which is hard enough with your body, let alone as a spirit with your HP cut in half.
The difficulty spike is enhanced because the game doesn’t frigging tell you anything. Why can’t I go back and fight the tutorial boss? Why do I need to go to Boletaria Castle and fight a Demon there? Are there other ways to get my body back? How do I level up? What level am I? Etcetera.
If you can get over these initial feelings of confusion and frustration, a pretty good game awaits you. The fighting in the game is VERY well done. You can parry attacks, block attacks, dual wield almost any weapon in the game, use almost any weapon in the game and do whatever you want to do. Yes you will die a lot. Heck I died a lot. Sure I got frustrated, but I never felt as if the computer cheated or that I was cheated. I almost always died because I either did something stupid, made a mistake or ran into an enemy that was way too powerful for me.
While the spike in difficulty is very high for a beginning part of the game, finally figuring out what to do and where to go is quite satisfying. There is no other game like this on the Xbox 360 or PS3. Period.
Find out why on page 2.
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Great Review Lono…. I just wish I could find the game. Tell me, how does the Coop work in this? Is it true that you can help or try to kill your online friend?
Thanks Droozy, but this is not a review. I haven’t tried co-op or anything, I’m still only about 9 to 10 hours into the game.
Either way….. tis a good read.
When I first died and lost all of my souls, I was really down about that. I beat so many enemies just to lose all the work I did. Then, upon touching my old bloodstain for the first time it hit me. Dying is a form of forced level grinding. Just don’t die before getting to your bloodstain. I had 3000 souls, then died, and after touching my stain I had 6000.
Like you said, don’t do anything stupid or you will die.
And if you die while trying to get to your bloodstain, you’ll lose all souls at that blood stain and instead have to go for the one where you were most recently killed at
I so totally agree Lono….. this game is a pain in my a$$ and I can’t stop playing it. It’s hard.. its technical… it’s deep…. and I love it. I played through that first Castle probably 30 times… screaming in frustration each time I screwed up…. pledging next time I would do it right. It punishes you when you screw up… but the feeling of accoplishment when you beat that section is awesome. Each mob in the game has the chance to kill you if you don’t watch out… especially the fire swinging guys. Thanks for bringing this game to my attention months ago through Twitter.
Yeah, I totally died against that first boss. I’m just gonna go on assuming he’s impossible and hope no one ever bursts my bubble.
I’m still in that deep WTF fog but feeling my way through. Unfortunately this just hasn’t been the week for this kind of frustration. Still diggin’ the game.
What class is everyone playing? The Temple Knight rocks. I guess this should be in a forum thread.
Great article on Demon’s Souls Lono.
What are your thoughts on how it handles online (ghosts/notes) and co-op/multiplayer (invade/help)?
25 tries before you beat the boss? jesus
it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I died quite a few times before I got TO the boss, while trying to FIND the boss. I beat the boss on the first try. He’s not that difficult.
Ugh I am still stuck in the first castle. Add my 25 times to Lono’s 25x . Yeah I was like WTF!? at the boss in the tutorial.
I am playing as the thief.
You’ve got to get the cross bow that is in the castle and learn to effectively lock on and actively dodge enemy attacks as the thief.
I saw the title to this article and it spoke to me! I totally love this game. I am about 9 or so hrs into also. I died quite a few times, from red eyes spear guy and mirelda the executioner. I amazingly didnt die on the blob boss my first time through. I was lucky because my messages got recommended right when i thought i was toast. I can’t stop playing either!
Game looks great, if it’s as deep as it looks, there’s no way I’m going to regret buying it.
Problem is, other than ebay, it’s almost impossible to get in Europe. Guess I just have to wait.
On a separate note, great article, Lono. Can’t remember myself reading all the way through an article in a while. I’ve become a slacker when it comes to reading after watching too many video quick looks/reviews.
Great first look! I actually beat the game and its a riot from start to finish. It probably took me close to 40 hours, but I did a lot of grinding to get some spells and levels.
The way the multiplayer works is you can invade other players games and try to kill them (they can t opt out). You can offer your services to somenone to try and team up to kill the level boss. You can also challenge someone for a duel with a special artifact.
The game is extremely deep… there are upgrades, soul forging, converting souls into spells and then there are the white and dark tendencies for both worls and characters! This game is a complete package!
For me this is the game I always wanted to play. My personal best game this or any generation for that matter! Incredible product… and its from Atlust (Fromsoftware) I never would of guessed it!