Demon's Souls reviews

Never heard of the game? I wouldn't be surprised. This game slipped under the radar, after a terrible showing at TGS 2008, which was nothing like the final game, putting many people off. However, after a few good reviews in Japan, this game has become reasonably well known, even as a small third party exclusive only released in Asia.

The game is a typical Action-Rpg. The game's story isn't anything special, just a simple “Save the world of Demons” affair. You chose one of about 10 different classes, and start the game. These classes are better thought of as starter kits: they give you a basic layout of stats and equipment, but apart from that they are no different. Meaning you could start as a weak Magician, and if you leveled up your strength and got some good armour, you could fight like a Knight. The game is different to Baldurs Gate or Diablo in this respect.

Then you play through the Tutorial level, facing some weak enemies, learning the controls. The combat is simple and brilliant. You can do a strong or weak attack with your weapon, and there are a small amount of combos you can do with these buttons. Obviously, a strong attack is slower but more powerful, while the weak attack is faster and less powerful. You can also equip your weapons in two hands, or dual wield. If you want you can equip a shield in your left hand and a sword in your right. Shields block with L1 and if you press L2 they parry, allowing you to counter, but if the timing is wrong, you are left in the open. For Ranged combat with Bows or Crossbows, you equip them in the same way as a sword. You must have arrows to use a bow. From here you can either lock-on and shoot from Third-Person, or aim in first person for a more precise shot. Good for long distance where you are too far away to lock-on. For Magic, you first have to equip your magic spell, have the required level. You also need a “Catalyst” to cast spells, which you can equip like a sword. Magic attacks can range from “Magic weapon” which adds damage to your weapon, to “Soul Arrow”, which shoots an attack at your foe. The opposite to Magic spells, are Miracles. Miracles can be thought of as a Prayer, and heal your health or aid you, usually, although a couple hurt the enemy, like Rage of God. Miracles work in the same way as Magic, but are Governed by your “Faith” stat, and use Talismins rather than Catalysts. However, as you're probably wondering, you can aquire “The Talismin of Beasts” which lets you cast both Magic and Miracles.

Combat isn't your usual hack and slash affair, which is why many ramble on about the “hardcore” difficulty of the game. The best way to describe it though, would be “This game punishes stupidity”. For example, if you are one on one with a skeleton, don't run in swinging, walk forward with your shield up, block, then attack, step back, repeat. However, if you are a light armoured class, like the thief, you will instead be trying to dodge the enemy's attack and get behind them, for a “backstab”, which is an automatic critical hit, which will do considerable damage. To dodge, you simply press circle + direction and you will roll.

After the tutorial, you wake up in the Nexus, after dying. You will be in “Soul Form”. In Soul form you have 50% of your max health in “Human Form”. To get back to human form you have to kill a Boss or a player as a Black Phantom, or a boss as a Blue Phantom. Thus, you now enter the first level of the game Boletaria Palace, known as 1–1, to beat the boss Phalanx and get your body back. At this point, you cannot upgrade your levels, but you will be able to after the level. You then face the level, and will end up playing through 3 levels for each of the 5 worlds. All 15 of them, not counting 1–4. The bosses are reasonable throughout the game, although compared to the touted “hardcore” difficulty, they aren't that bad in comparison. The levels are designed well, and every now and again you open up a short cut, so that if you die, which you will, your passage through the level will be faster.

Dying. You will be dying often in this game, but this game doesn't simply give you a Game Over screen, and take you back to the save point. In this game, when you die, you will be taken back to the Nexus, and will be in the aforementioned Soul Form. Where you died, there will be a Blood Stain. If you can make it back here alive, you will recover all the souls you had before you died. Souls are the game's currency, and are used to pay for weapons, health or mana restorative items, or to level up. If you don't make it back, those souls are lost forever, and you have to get back to the new blood stain to salvage what you lost, and so on. This leaves us fearing death. Later in the game, after grinding, you may have thousands and thousands of souls, so dying here could potentially mean losing your hard work.

And finally, the online. In demons souls, online is very different to most games. If you are in soul form, you can become a Black Phantom, once you get past a certain point in the game. Then you can “Invade” a player in “Human” forms game, and try to kill them, by stalking them through the level, and laying traps. Killing them will mean you gain back your body. The same thing can happen to you if you are in human form and are playing online. Also, there is another component, Blue Phantoms. If you are a Human player, you can summon Blue Phantoms, who are players in soul form, to join you to beat the boss of the level. Also, summoning Blue Phantoms can be a way to help beat a Black Phantom, as when they enter you are told, but have no idea where they are. Strength in numbers. The attraction of playing as a Blue Phantom, is to beat the boss of another players level. Doing this gets your body back, but you still have to beat the level in your game.

In conclusion, Demons Souls is a very deep Action-Rpg experience, that is hard, but never unfair. The game allows you to build your character how you see fit. There is a very cool online component, and much more to do than can be described in a review, such as World Tendancy events and Weapon upgrades.

I'd strongly reccomend this to everybody. 96% overall.

This game can be somewhat confusing to start, as you are very much dumped in the deep end. Since the manual is in chinese apart from a tiny leaflet, this wiki can help where the manual doesn't. Similar to Jason and the Argonauts in feel, but with more options and flexibility.

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/intro

You play most of the game in a Soul state which is weaker than being alive. You can become alive again by beating bosses, invading/aiding another online player's game, or finding a rare item.

Figuring out how to beat bosses/get through areas is a bit trial and error. Being killed instantly is often being your reward for getting it wrong. This can make the game frustrating, especially in the beginning. You “drop” all your demon souls (used to buy weapons/level up) when you die. This happens frequently early on.

However, if you can get past the frustrating times this game is very rewarding. It has good use of weapons and shields – you can block with a shield, and stab with a spear at the same time. Dual-wield/sword-shield/two-handed combinations are available for every weapon. I think this will be a lasting action/rpg in my collection.

Demon's Souls is not for the casual gamer; and the faint of heart need not apply.

It is a very unforgiving game where dying can potentially cause you to lose all the souls you have gathered (think of souls as currency for items and item upgrades, or experience points to spend on character upgrades) if you are unable to retrace your steps back to where you originally died. Even if you successfully make it back to the spot where you last died it could very well of cost you 10 to 15 minutes, or more in some areas to make it back.

The game does not allow you to save where you see fit, or even at checkpoints. It is constantly saving in the background, and you cannot explictly load / save anywhere like you can with regular games. You die, there is no reload, its already saved that you have died and put you at a respawn point.

There is no pause, pressing start, rummaging through your inventory, or even pressing the PS button will not stop the games action from unfolding. The only way to ‘pause’ is to quit the game.

You will die, die again, and then keep on dying. The levels are well designed and there are countless ways of dying. You will probably spend the majority of the game in soul form, which is a weakened state after dying that you can only return to ‘life’ by killing a demon boss. (Don't worry you'll probably die again soon after)

The combat system while simple is beautifully executed. You also have a variety of foes to deal with, and certain foes require different strategies in order to deal with efficently.

This is a game where the players individual skill counts for alot more than the stat points they have pumped in their character, or the +20 ring of Ogre Slaying that have equiped. There are areas where you need your character to be strong enough in order to cope with, but no amount of stat pumping is going to get you past certain areas unless you know what you are doing.

All the above may come across as negatives, but to me this is what makes the game so beautiful. This is a game you learn to respect. You aren't just challenged in the big boss fights, you are challenged in the lead up to the big fights, which is very rare in this day in age of hand holding games, particularly in the RPG genre which this game falls in.

If this game seems to be up your alley I would highly recommend the review by Eurogamer for more detail on what could be in store for you.

Demon's Souls is an awesome and hardcore RPG, has great online play, an excellent combat system and leveling system, can be a little annoying at the start of the game, but as you get stronger it gets a bit more easy.

I recommend this game for any fans of Fallout, Oblivion, or the Final Fantasy series.. well pretty much any rpg fan ;)

Finally managed to get this through MightyApe since even play-asia seems to be constantly out of stock.

One of the best RPG I've played in a long time. Challenging and enormously fun. I've been playing this pretty much constantly since I've got it delivered.
In many ways, you are on equal grounds to the enemy. Similar amount of health, enemy uses health items, they block and they also get fried by their own trap as you will.

There are some reviews floating around stating this game has harsh death penalty. You lose all your currency / experience points. I actually think this is far preferable to “Game Over” screen, which breaks the rhythm of the game, as you simply respawn at the level entrance with chance of getting all your currency / experience back.

Graphic has some low res sections. However, the atmosphere of the game, compelling game play and clever (and deadly) level design more than makes up for it. Moreover, the armour and weapons actually looks like armour and weapons; not metal bikini of invulnerabili­ty +10.

Best of all, there are some elements of multiplay where players leave messages to each other to warn / lie about dangers that lies ahead. There is also little blood patches which allows you to view how other players died, which also gives you a good indication of traps and monsters ahead. Lastly another player may invade or assist other player's game.

Overall one of the best games I've played in a while.

Demon's Souls is unforgiving. But if you can persevere you'll find one of the most rewarding, satisfying and deep RPG's in years.

A game that sometimes rough around the edges, espeically the interface. But with one of the most accessable and deep combat systems in any RPG. It's got me hooked.

A hardcore gamers cult classic in the making.

Pros:

• In-depth dark fantasy story-line (try playing with all the lights off!)The story-line has its twists and paths to choose from.
• Epic boss battles where you find yourself pitted against a unstoppable juggernauts, through trial and error find there weaknesses and overcome them.
• Seamless integration online, while playing you'll encounter white/blue/black ghost-like avatars that battle within the same level with you giving the feeling that your not alone in this gloomy fantasy land.
• Play up to 4 players co-op online, summon other players into your game to quest or defeat bosses. The avatars you see in game can be summoned to join you! Helping out others quest allows you to be rated (A, B, C) so you can build a reputation of being good or scary!
• Each battle you encounter can either be life or death. This is no Diablo I/II hack and slash clone, but more “Age of Conan” where a well-timed parry will land a critical hit. You have to react to the different attacks your enemy throws at you! Too slow – take off your armor and dodge your attacker to stab him in the back.
• Player vs player (PVP) hunt down unsuspecting prey lurking in the shadows, but be careful your plan may backfire!
• 10 unique classes ranging from your grunt barbarians to your mages. Classes are versatile making your character handle any situation.
• Personalize your own character customizing their appearances. Hair, face, all the way to nose,eyes,mouth dimensions.
• Players that have died leave blood stains on the ground, that when looked at, replay the avatar getting killed – warning you of potential threats and sometimes just plain amusing (seen blood stains of people jumping off cliffs doing somersaults). You can also leave notes on the ground that serve as hints, warnings and reminders.

Cons:

• unforgivable difficulty, dying is a common nature in this game, you'll spend alot of your time in ‘soul form’ (having half health). You will restart the stage and work your way to where you died (where you may collect the all the souls you lost). Being in human form the enemies are slightly more difficult than in soul form. Dying again in soul form you will lose all the souls you previously collected. This by far is the most frustrating concept of the game as all your hard work will be wiped out.
• Multiplayer co-op games are fun, however there is no option to invite your friends to your game.
• New players who encounter other players online “highjacking” their game and getting killed may put you off playing (I personally will wait for the day I can get my revenge).

Final thoughts:
I previously played Final Fantasy 7 through the PSNetwork, free MMORPGs and WoW so I've had the taste of RPG games. Personally love the idea of being in a world exploring and questing and encountering other players at the same time. Though the difficulty may put off players, the accomplishment of defeating these juggernauts, knowing how to fight the mixture of foes and finishing them with combat moves is thoroughly rewarding.

Note: As this is an import, majority of online players maybe from Asian countries, but I have yet to witness any lag issues on my broadband connection. Narrative and game is in English, while manual comes in Chinese.

This will be one of the most difficult game's you will have played in the last 5–10 years. But also one of the most rewarding games you will ever play.

You start the game as some nobody who needs to save the world from the “Old One” (Big Scary Demon). To do this you must defeat lesser demons who carry stones necessary to sealing the “Old One” away for good.The story really isn't much to write home about but does provide a premise for the game and does seem to make some sense.

This games graphics are amazing, dark and gritter some of the stages are actually quite scary but all seem authentic and fit Demons Souls theme perfectly.

Game play is what is important here and it is amazing. You start a character having basic customization options and class choosing.The class system only really affects the beginning of the game as once you gain enough soul levels you will be able to train anything you want, though levels do come very slowly after a while. You will have a full arsenal of weaponry for your character from clubs to katana's, magic to bows and armor of all shapes and sizes. There is also a creation system you will unlock later on as well to create legendary weapons you make using loot off the bosses.

When playing you will feel quite awkward and off balance as you are not some heroic sword swinging bad ass like Dante or Kratos but instead an authentic knight where swinging your sword just once or rolling away from an attack while wearing heavy armor can drastically drain your stamina bar and make you unable to move. Every encounter has to be planned out before entering it and surprises lie around every corner so walking and having your shield raised at all times will help in your survival.

Dieing 10 times on one stage is not unusual or uncommon in this game. Demon Souls is ruthless in it's approach to gameplay.The enemy AI is amazing and smart. Monsters or enemies will have no problem in dispatching you in one hit or a flurry of attacks and send you to the grave if you make a mistake. Saying this the computer doesn't cheat, if you die it is because YOU made a mistake. If you die you will lose all your exp or souls you have gathered and will have to start the stage again with lowered health and all of the creeps having respawn. If you die again before getting back to your corpse those souls are gone for good. The bosses or demons of the game require strategy and most of all patience to defeat. Dying at that point of the stage can be quite frustrating especially since they come back to full health and you may have to go through the whole stage again, but they offer big rewards for the victorious few.

Now the multiplayer in this game is very unique. There are no lobbies or rooms instead if you have a active connection then your world is open. You can see other players running around your stage in what seems like another dimension as ghosts. You will also find players who have died bloodstains on the floor. Clicking this will show you the last ten seconds of their life and maybe give a clue to how they died. Also later in the game it is possible to summon other players to your world to play and help you in your quest, just a note people can also invade your world and engage in PvP (You can too if you want to be mean).

One bad thing I found about the game was it is very light on help or details on some things. But most of us have the internet and you can do research to figure out all the tricks and mechanics in Demons Souls.

Overall this game is AMAZING and is so underrated I believe because of it's difficulty. If you like to have your hand held then stay away but if you are looking for a challenge, kind of a game of old where it was hard to clock a game and you want to have that scream like a girl yelling “I DID IT!” after defeating a boss then this game is for you.

Demons Souls is THE must have RPG for PS3. The difficulty is extreme. This game is definitely not for the casual gamer. But as far as hardcore gamers go, who think they're unstoppable and can't be beat, Demons Souls will beat you. And hard.

And that's just the single player aspect. Demons Souls seamlessly blends offline play with online. Think you've mastered the core game? Beaten every boss and collected every weapon? Well take your game online, and prepare to learn new weapon/armor combos, new spell mixes and new fight patterns.

The dark gothic direction of the art is supported beautifully by the eery soundtrack that seems to reflect the mood of each area perfectly. While Demons Souls has no story as such, each character has a background, and reading and understanding these backgrounds really gives weight to your decisions. With good choices making the world around you lighter, and bad ones making it darker, and enemies tougher.

In summary Demons Souls is a great RPG, blending incredible art with an epic soundtrack, solid gameplay and a reliable online experience.

Service was excellent, this was my first purchase from Mighty Ape and I was surprised at the speed of delivery. In regards to the game, I am a mature gamer who is serious about his games and so after reading many of the reviews I was looking forward to a real challenge. However, a game should be fun, if it isn't then what is the point? I enjoyed the harsh difficulty of the game but was seriously disappointed by the fact that you lose everything when you die and basically start from square one. I found this made the game unforgiving to the point that it became a chore to play. Other than that the fighting mechanics are very good and visuals are superb.

Epic RPG. Dark, subtle, challenging and rewarding. Buy if you're a RPG fan, loved Dark Souls or want a good challenge.

Fustrating and a waste of money. If you like random back to front fustrating controls that some make no sense then yes its the game for you. Otherwise dont waste your money.

Brutal and challenging as heck, Demon's Souls is a gaming experience you won't be forgetting soon.

From the awesome environments filled with so much detail and atmosphere, to the hardcore bosses and enemies that will test your gaming skills like very few other games can. Mastering Demon's Souls gets very addictive.

If you're coming into Demon's Souls out of Dark Souls like I am, you'll find that a lot of the mechanics work pretty much the same way.

The combat is tight and responsive, the builds for your character are highly customizable and upgrades work pretty much the same way except with different items to collect.

I found Demon's Soul to be a lot more engaging compared to Dark Souls, because there's more story to it, told through the different people you meet. The game makes you interact with a lot more people too, with items to gain or side quests to do.

What also blew me away was the graphics for the game. You can't tell that this thing is 4 years old now.

I knew going into it that it would be a better than average game, but no amount of online searches could have prepared me for how awesome the game turned out to be.

This was truly the start of something amazing in gaming and you have to check it out.

Brilliant game quite difficult though as there is no save option in the game

Demon's Souls is one of the more challenging games to come out in recent years. I have probably logged about 6 hours of play so far, and have barely made it anywhere … my trophy count is at 1%.

Having said that, if you are looking for a game that isn't going to be finished in 8 hours, which will at times frustrate the hell out of you, but provides a great role-playing game with will test your patience and gaming skill then Demon's Souls is perfect.

I love it, recommend it, and play it as often as I have time … be ready to sink a few hours in this game.

Love this game one of the hardest rpgs i've ever played it. It's set in a dark and gritty medievil world and will punish you if you get cocky. If your a hardcore rpg fan you don't want to miss this game it's hard and you will die but that just add's to the fun with this game.

This is unlike anything you have played before.

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART – this game will pwn you but you'll love it. Reminds me of classic gaming back in the day when dying actually meant something, and where the main character wasn't God who could brush hits off.

DON'T get this game if you rely on autosaves and adjusting the difficulty to easy – DO get this if you want and love a challenge.

Received the game quickly and it's great, but I was disappointed to find that it wasn't what I expected to receive — the American copy which was shown in the product image. Would be nice if we were clear on what “import” is, next time.

A somewhat unforgiving game which I love. Nothing like earning your gear with skilled battle, learning each opponent

if you're looking for a challenge which is just as rewarding as it is difficult then this is the game for you.

a wide variety of classes to start with and a solid leveling system, the rpg aspect of demon's souls is great.
the combat allows for multiple styles to be used and rewards the player who comes prepared.
a unique online experience just makes the game even better.

This game is very addictive! It's hard and unforgiving but teaches you to be a better player (not often seen in today's games). It's action packed, uses a very cool multiplayer system and is one of the most hardcore RPGs I've played.

Great game, love how when you die you go back to the start with no demon souls, makes the game more rewarding when your are able 2 finish the level without dying, got me and my mates hooked.

Demon's Souls is one of the hardest games you will ever play, but it's also one of the best. While you will scream at the TV when you die and lose all your level progress, you will also be the happiest dude on the planet when you do beat a major demon.
Easy upgrade system, cool online features and more than 50 hours gameplay.
Awesome game.

Was everthing the review from ign on youtube said brilliant fighting, weapons, monsters and when u die u lose your souls nd if you die again the game get hard every time. =D =D

Wonderful gameplay with non-linear progression makes this quite an interesting play.
I have not beaten this game yet, one thing I found fun so far is that due to the game's non-linear progression you have the possibility of running into something you absolutely cannot handle at lower levels. This combined with multiplayer support that lets you see how other players died makes for some extremely hilarious moments in game. Such as getting one shotted by a boss or evade rolling into a bottomless pit, the amount of entertaining ways to die or watch someone else die are endless.
With that said it should be obvious this is a somewhat challenging game. There are times when it will feel slightly grindish and frustrating. However once you get past a level or beat a boss, the feeling of accomplishment will be unlike any cake walk games you've played.

Best RPG I have played so far!
Very good!!

When I started playing this game I thought it looked great but was so difficult. The game slowly became something of pure genius. It has been a long time that I have played a game and praised it so and in so many ways this game is perfection. The combat system to the environments to the mobs, this is a stunning game. It gets easier and easier the longer you play – not due to character development and leveling but you the player get better at fighting. Be prepared to scream at your console, threaten to turn it off and never boot it again. When I say this game is hard it's extremely hard! Not only can 2 hours of gameplay send you all the way to the beginning of the level with all mobs respawning but one miscalculation will leave you tearing your hair out. I loved this game, it's something I will always have positive things to say about. And the online play, I hate online play but this was done in a was so well that I embraced it, and it's helpful as other in the world can leave messages and warnings.

Overall, if you own a PS3 and are into RGPs this is something you can't not have in your collection. I hope to see more games like this from Atlas in the future as I am now forever a fan.

Great game

I actually bought this game for my partner. He loves it. My friend also enjoys this game too. Its awesome playing it online and getting clues from others if you get stuck.

Demon's Souls is an RPG with a difference. Featuring multiple interesting game mechanics, such as hint messages, invasions/assists, and soul mode, Demon's Souls is certainly a revolutionary game.

Not only revolutionary, Demon's Souls is much more unforgiving than most modern games. However, after playing it for a few hours and figuring out enemy's weaknesses, you will not find it any more difficult than most other games.

It won't take you that long to finish, but you can play a new game with your previous character, with slighty harder enemies, and you can try and collect all the goodies you didn't gather in your first play through.

Overall, a good game, with some very interesting ideas and concepts.

This game is fantastic. It's enough like Champions Of Norrath (one of my favourite hack ‘n’ slash games) to appeal to me, but has enough of it's own story and all-round individuality to draw in people who don't particularly favour the genre. Definitely a great buy.

On the surface, Demons Souls is your stock standard fantasy RPG; find weapons, kill enemies, level up and beat the boss.

Underneath is one of the most challenging and rewarding games of the last few years. The game will put your observation, strategy, and patience to the test, along with how well you can keep cool under pressure; try and hack and slash your way through this one and you will die. A lot. In fact, you'll die a lot anyway, but in Demon Souls death is just the beginning.

It's not for everyone, but if you enjoy the kind of combat challenge where winning is about trying again and again, and again, until you learn how to win, then this is for you. It's a little like Onimusha, on super hard, on steroids. If you're looking for some easy trophies move along.

Despite the extremely hard game play this game is hard. Nice looking flowing character animations, controls are very well mapped, very nice backgrounds and textures, and very hard. After the hours of frustration eventually you will find your own way to conquer the odds and feel so relieved and joyed that all you time dying paid off… great game.

I already own a 360, but after seeing videos and reviews of Demon's Souls online (and a few months of trying to convince myself not to) I finally caved, bought a PS3 and ordered Demon's Souls.

After a couple weeks of playing nothing but DS, it was definitely worth it. It punishes you for your mistakes but it's rarely unfair. Success has more to do with your skill than what level you are or what gear you're using. It's like gameplay from 15 years ago with current-gen graphics. If you're sick of games that hold your hand, give you endless hints and seem like they're built to prevent failure then try Demon's Souls.

The online components are a great addition too. You can read hints left by other players, watch the last few seconds of their lives, summon them to help you or get invaded and hunted down in your own game.

Easily the best title out at the moment for any RPG fan, until Final Fantasy VIII that is. Don't be thrown off by its brutal difficulty, the sense of satisfaction you get after beating a boss is imense. Quite possibly the most original addaptation of online play I have witnessed.

Demon Souls isnt a game for the lighthearted gamer it takes intense strategy and a means to hack slash and hack again especially if you die, This is due to the fact that upon death your soul is taken to the nexus and monsters in the world respawn as if you had never killed them, well annoying the game seems to draw you back until you make a character that u like it must have aspects of all traits bow, martial and magic.

So i admit that this game is somewhat good. But i don't think it deserves the praise it's had.
I have to give kudos for the online. Truly one of the best online experiences and the best help/support system in gaming history. That's really the only thing that deserves considerable amounts of attention.

Everything else is pretty lackluster. The story is boring and barely present, only given out in small doses between the lengthy levels (lengthy due to copious amounts of trial and error, backtracking and dying).

Bringing me to my next point, the difficulty. Demon's Souls has received both good and bad words about it's difficulty. The thing is, it isn't actually hard. Combat is quite simple once you get the right idea, the right idea being block and wait for them to stop attacking. The main reason this game is hard, is because of cheap insta-kill attacks/traps, and having to go back to the start of the level whenever you die. Not challenging, just unforgiving.

The graphics are kinda dull too. I mean, there's no problem when a game is going for a certain theme (eg Fallout 3 being a very one toned game due to nuclear war/post-apocalyptia). But what Fallout 3 did to counter that was have bright personalities and such. With Demon's Souls, everything is dull and grey. It fits the scene (a world being overrun with demons) but it just doesn't look good and isn't fun. The graphics themselves (from a technical view) are good, as is the sound.

All in all, it's a decent game, worthy of praise for some of it's aspects, but it just gets boring and it really isn't anything that great (besides the online component).