Games Nest

DEMON'S SOULS

For PS3 From Atlus

“The game is difficult. Very difficult!” “One of the most challenging games ever!” “It’s like trying to bring down a brick wall with your head!” But does Demon’s Souls really live up to these comments? Let’s see;

King Allant, ruler of the kingdom of Boletaria, blinded by his desire to help his kingdom, summoned a powerful creature “The Old One” to grand him the power to do so. King Allant though didn’t’ consider the fact that The Old One was a demonic being whose intention had nothing to do with helping people. One after the other the lands of Boletaria became engulfed by a colorless mist, produced by The Old One in order to fulfill his true intention, to devour everything! The people in the devoured lands became possessed and turned into brainless minions of their new master. Many brave souls dare to enter the fog but none returned. And the world seemed condemned, as the mist spread beyond the borders of Boletaria, till a new hope emerged…

You start the game by fully customizing a -human only- character. Then you can choose one of the ten classes available (Soldier, Knight, Hunter, Priest, Magician, Wanderer, Barbarian, Thief, Temple Knight and Royalty).The game is an action – RPG so obviously there is a leveling system. The main currency of the game is the souls you earn by defeating enemies. They are used to level up, upgrade and buy weapons and armor as well as forging new ones. There are five mist engulfed locations (Boletaria Place, Stonefang Tunnel, Tower of Latria, Shrine of Storms and Valley of Defilement). Each one has its own unique features like bosses enemies and environments. The player in order to unlock the final area, Old one’s lair, must first conquer each of the five previous mentioned locations. Each quest starts from “The Nexus”. There you can travel to the five locations via archstones and meet the persons who have entered the mist before you, what remains of them anyway. Those able to support you will teach you spells and miracles or at least provide you with information. In Nexus you will also find the “Maiden in Black” who will -in return of your souls- level you up. The battle sequences are based on an action system and not the classical RPG one. So far -apart form the battles- we have a common RPG game but Demon’ Souls has two unique features. The first one is the “World Tendency” followed up by the “Character Tendency”. The game supports a system which lets you make every choice you want facing of course the consequences. The two tendencies are based on these choices. Killing or aiding a character will move your Character Tendency towards black or white while killing a boss demon or dying in a world will alter your World Tendency. And speaking of dying, here we have the second unique element of the game. If you die on body form, you still go on as a phantom. Phantom form thought brings your health bar down to half. If you de again as a phantom the game is over. If you are a phantom and want to regain your body form you can either use one of the few “Stone of Ephemeral Eyes” or defeat a boss demon. But will you die often? Is the game so much difficult? Frankly no! While it’s infamous for its difficulty Demon’s Souls is not that much of a challenge. Not in the first playthrough though. After finishing it once, you unlock NG (New Game) mode. In every “New Game” the difficulty level will increase, leading to the maximum increase of 122% in the seventh “New Game”. Difficulty level at 100% is easy but when it’s 222% then your life becomes hell! The controls are Ok, making the game experience run smoothly and turning complex moves easy (like the parrying attack).

Demon’s Souls graphics are a bit old. The locations especially could be more detailed. Yet, the environments are –partly- interactive. Creating a bridge by knocking a pile of planks over a ledge or unleashing a group of boulders on some enemies is life saving at times. The sound is epic matching perfectly with the atmosphere giving us some of the most beautiful tunes in video games. On the other hand, the voice acting is bad and it’s often hilarious.

The game also supports multiplayer mode. Leaving the “Blue Eye Stone” somewhere in a level can make another player, facing difficulties; summon you to his world in order to help him conquer this level. Or, you can use the “Red Eye Stone” to summon another player to duel with you, using a basic PvP system.

As you have understood so far the story is nothing unique for an RPG also the Game physics engine is buggy making for example dead bodies stuck to your character’s legs. Also if you want to –easily- keep up with the increase of difficulty level you’ll have to farm souls a lot. This is ok for some but for others is pretty annoying

Demon’s Souls was a game we had few expectations from. Its budget was low so that Atlus could not achieve much. Luckily Demons Souls prove us wrong because even though it doesn’t stand out from the rest RPGs it is a great game.

DLC(s); -

A trailer;