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Sell me on Demon's Souls.


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I've been on the fence about this game basically since it came out. Nearly every review I've read ranks it among the generation's best RPGs, but then I watch some YouTube footage and it just looks dire to me. Lifeless, clunky, dark, and tedious. What am I not seeing or understanding about the game? Seriously. I'm not trolling here; I need help.

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The music is good, the atmosphere is nice. Character generation is excellent.

 

Fun ends there for me. This is of a certain type of JRPG with a high level of difficulty where you must spend a good deal of time grinding and study the bosses to learn their one weakness. It is a lot of dying over and over and over again. Tedious is a good word for it

 

Gear and upgrade system is fun to play around with but there isn't enough going on in terms of story to interest me. I do think it is a well made game and I can understand the appeal of it but it isn't for me and I was somewhat surprised by how rave the review for it were. I tried hard to like it more because it did some things that I thought were really cool (light swords/fencing style combat if you used them was pretty sweet) but the punishing difficulty wore me down and I'd find myself playing something else.

 

Also that fancy class system ends up not mattering to much because all that does is preconfigure your starting gear. Once you jump into the game, you realize that you'll need to have a little bit of everything depending on the situation so the gameplay all ends up the same after you've downed the first boss and rounded up supplies.

 

Now that the online has been pulled, the one big draw of finding player messages is gone so you'd need a FAQ/strategy guide or a lot of patience to figure everything out.

 

Err, sorry. I was supposed to plug it wasn't I? lol

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I thought it was ok, pretty damn hard though. I made it pretty far in the game just by using a trick I found which was to lure the much higher level knights guarding areas you weren't supposed to get to until later, to the stairway and let them fall down the shaft, they usually died or were very close to dying. At such a low level killing them gave me outrageous experience up until around level 10 or so I think. Anyways. I remember enjoying the game somewhat, but it was far from a favorite. Unlike Algus, I think having the online disabled is a good thing. I hated people jumping into my game and killing me! I used to disable my internet connection anyways.

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I can't (sell you). I bought the game and put it back in the case on the first death. Not the greatest first impression.

 

HOWEVER. I can tell you that Fallout 3 had the same effect for me and yet I went on to spend many hours completing it and New Vegas.

 

Some outstanding games are an acquired taste: which makes it tough for those who have never tasted it before.

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Demon's Souls is outstanding.

 

First of all let me tell you that the people telling you the game is so damn hard it's nearly unplayable don't get it. It does get really hard towards the end, but before that it is mostly a question of caution. Demon's Souls has a somewhat realistic approach in that every enemy poses a serious threat. Players are used to enemies being cannon fodder to them, they are used to being much more powerful than the average enemy. In Demon's Souls enemies are your equal.

 

This just requires a change of tactic.

You must not rush into a horde of enemies and try to kill them God of War style. Especially early on you need to lure out enemies one by one and kill them. Go near enough so one can see you, then retreat far enough to battle the one following you without the others coming after you too.

 

That's the big secret and works for most of the game. You still need to learn how to parry and when to strike, but that you must do in every fighting game as well.

 

People tend to rush in and get slaughtered because they lack patience.

 

 

 

Dying still is a part of the gameplay mechanic though; when you meet new enemies or bosses you will still die a few times before you learn how they behave and figure out the right tactics. Just like in 8- and 16-bit games where you had to learn their patterns. But the careful approach minimizes the number of deaths.

 

 

About the game being Lifeless, clunky, dark, and tedious... well, that's the world the game plays in. It's depressing, dead and desolate. A terrible world. It is clunky because the character can move only like a human being can in real life. the better you get, the more elegant it will look though. But the atmosphere will always stay hopeless and lonely and grey. If that's not for you, stay away.

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Dying still is a part of the gameplay mechanic though

 

Right, because it's a hard game, and it's not just hard at the end. I do get it, I know what you're saying. It doesn't change the fact. You can have patience, you can spend 30 minutes learning an enemy, you can parry, you can strike. Doesn't change anything. That dying isn't just a mechanic friend, it a direct result of the game being hard! LOL

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Right, because it's a hard game, and it's not just hard at the end. I do get it, I know what you're saying. It doesn't change the fact. You can have patience, you can spend 30 minutes learning an enemy, you can parry, you can strike. Doesn't change anything. That dying isn't just a mechanic friend, it a direct result of the game being hard! LOL

 

Nah, it would be hard if dying would punish you, but it doesn't. You can try as often as you want.

The games from the 8- and 16-bit era, where you died and had limited continues, those were the ones that were hard. Dying in Demon's Souls just means repeating a few minutes. You can even grab the souls you collected if you make it to the point where you died again. Had old games offered such a luxury they would have been a walk in the park.

 

Contra games are hard. Mega Man games are hard.Ninja Gaiden games are hard. Demon's Souls just requires patience. :)

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Nah, it would be hard if dying would punish you, but it doesn't.

 

Don't you have to be able to get to your body or you lose all your souls, needed to level up? If you get killed again trying to retrieve them, don't you lose them? I dunno, I thought dying was quite punishing! Nothing like farming souls for a hour, and losing it all, something I did more than once playing Demon Souls. Frustrating from what I remember. You're right though, and I totally agree, there are others games that are hard and even more frustrating also. In order to beat those games you mentioned, it sounds like you would need to take exactly the same advice you're trying to give in regards to Demon Souls? Basically, spending a lot of time learning the enemies and lay outs. dedicating many hours and hours to the game. I think the reason you have to use the same strategy to master Demon Souls as you do those old 8- and 16-bit games is because they all have something in common. They are all hard! LOL :grin:

 

I do agree, it would be next to unbeatable for most people if they didn't allow unlimited continues. Even with unlimited continues a lot of people don't beat it. (Myself included)

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Yes, sure you can in theory lose your souls. But I would say that it is unlikely you will if you had made it that far before. You don't usually get worse when you play a second time, so it barely ever happens that you lose any serious amount of souls. ;)

And if you farm souls for an hour and then lose them you are doing something wrong anyway; that's just careless. When you farm you should never stay in a dungeon for that long, but return after 10 - 15 minutes and reenter to defeat the enemies you know how to handle again and again. Again that's not the game being especially hard, it's the player being impatient and rushing things. You can far for many hours that way and never die.

 

The old games I mention, they have limited lives and even time limits; patience won't help you there. You really are punished for failing, been thrown back to the very beginning, with nothing left from your previous try but your memory. Demon's Souls lets you try again without loss if you don't rush things. :)

 

I am a very bad player myself, I really fail hard in many games. Yet I got through the first half of Demon's Souls without problems. I could never get that far in the hard 8- and 16-bit games. Sure I died a few times, but usually I did so prepared that this will happen, having returned from the dungeon and invested my souls frequently before. Patience is key. :)

Edited by 108 Stars
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  • 1 month later...

Everyone should try it. It's probably one of the best game I've played in a long time. I don't finish games anymore, I get bored before the end, but not Demon's Souls. It's quite addictive but yeah you have to be patient. 108 Stars described the game pretty good.

 

I started playing Dark Souls. The game is improved in some areas, I like how you don't need to farm for herbs anymore. I think Demon's Souls had better graphics and atmosphere but i'm early in the game.

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I'v been playing a lot of Dark Souls. Some people said it's easier than Demon's Souls but it gets hard later. What's better about the game is the open world design. You can really explore the world and many areas are connected. You can use shortcuts and travel from one area to another. Demon's Souls is more like area 1-1, 1-2 etc. Also something I didn't like about Demon's Souls is the Crystal Lizards. If you miss them too often in Demon's Souls they dissapear. They give you important material for weapons. In Dark Souls you have unlimited chances to kill them. Anyway, both games are good but they are also very similar. Maybe you should consider skipping Demon's Souls.

Edited by Colecovision
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I'v been playing a lot of Dark Souls. Some people said it's easier than Demon's Souls but it gets hard later. What's better about the game is the open world design. You can really explore the world and many areas are connected. You can use shortcuts and travel from one area to another. Demon's Souls is more like area 1-1, 1-2 etc. Also something I didn't like about Demon's Souls is the Crystal Lizards. If you miss them too often in Demon's Souls they dissapear. They give you important material for weapons. In Dark Souls you have unlimited chances to kill them. Anyway, both games are good but they are also very similar. Maybe you should consider skipping Demon's Souls.

 

I have to agree...I love Demons Souls but that's harcore to the extreme. The crystal lizards really pissed me off. I'm glad they changed that in Dark Souls.

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