Gaming Demon’s Souls (PS5 Exclusive)

[Ted Lasso]

The run backs in this game are OUTRAGEOUS. The actual feck were they thinking in a modern game? Even from software themselves don’t do it.

the bosses aren’t even that hard but the ridiculous run back to tower night makes me want to not play this Cnut of a game anymore.

I thought there were decent shortcuts opened up for most bosses.

 

[Ainu]

I should've been clearer, they don't do it in their modern releases.

Fair enough if it's a like-for-like, I would've thought they could have modernised it a bit in some ways, though.

Run backs are still run backs even if they're a minute or less. None of Bloodborne, Sekiro, or Elden Ring had anything close to that, as I recall.

Not in their modern releases, no. It does feel like the runbacks have been getting shorter on average in each release, though I haven't played Elden Ring yet. Bloodborne still had some long ones though, like Father G, Shadows of Yharnam and Logarius, and that's with shortcuts. Dark Souls 2 + DLC has several that feel like marathons through a warzone compared to anything in Demon's Souls.

 

[Massive Spanner]

I absolutely adored Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring but this is absolute shite!

what’s the point of making a game look so beautiful and not changing any of the awful outdated aspects of it? The combat is crap, the bosses are really dull, the level design is atrocious and utterly soil destroyingly annoying with its stupid narrow corridors that you can’t hit anything in and constant areas where you fall to your death so easily. I gave it as far as where you’ve to fight those stupid big troll cnuts with their clubs after endlessly going back over and over through the same shitty enemies in this annoyingly terrible platformy type section only to get absolutely demolished by them In 2 hits because there is zero room to actually dodge them. 1/10 because at least it looks nice.

 

[largelyworried]

I absolutely adored Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring but this is absolute shite!

what’s the point of making a game look so beautiful and not changing any of the awful outdated aspects of it? The combat is crap, the bosses are really dull, the level design is atrocious and utterly soil destroyingly annoying with its stupid narrow corridors that you can’t hit anything in and constant areas where you fall to your death so easily. I gave it as far as where you’ve to fight those stupid big troll cnuts with their clubs after endlessly going back over and over through the same shitty enemies in this annoyingly terrible platformy type section only to get absolutely demolished by them In 2 hits because there is zero room to actually dodge them. 1/10 because at least it looks nice.

I loved the original back in the day, so a nostalgia trip with better graphics was fine for me, but its interesting to see people trying it out for the first time who are familiar with the newer games.

I think my main complaint is that they should have done something about the bosses. I'd say the only bosses that are even half challenging by modern standards are Maneater, Flamelurker and King Allant. Some of them like the Adjudicator are a joke. Maybe they could have kept the original design as a first phase, but added a second phase where they were much more developed and complex.

Also the boss runs are fairly tedious, especially old hero. Back then the thinking was that the boss run was part of the boss challenge, but by convention players have just learned to run past all the enemies so they (eventually) ditched the concept of major boss runs. DS1 is no better and DS2 is 10x worse, but they should have sorted it for a remake.

That said I wouldn't play the original vs the remake at this point in time and I still think it beats DS2 handily.

 

[Reditus]

I absolutely adored Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring but this is absolute shite!

what’s the point of making a game look so beautiful and not changing any of the awful outdated aspects of it? The combat is crap, the bosses are really dull, the level design is atrocious and utterly soil destroyingly annoying with its stupid narrow corridors that you can’t hit anything in and constant areas where you fall to your death so easily. I gave it as far as where you’ve to fight those stupid big troll cnuts with their clubs after endlessly going back over and over through the same shitty enemies in this annoyingly terrible platformy type section only to get absolutely demolished by them In 2 hits because there is zero room to actually dodge them. 1/10 because at least it looks nice.

shame you arent enjoying it. I loved the remake and never played the original. I would rank it above DS2 and DS3

 

[KirkDuyt]

They didn't tweak the gameplay at all? I played through the Dark Souls remaster recently and barely got through it with how poorly it has aged, but I'm definitely not going to pick this up then. I beat it a million times on PS3 anyway.

 

[largelyworried]

They didn't tweak the gameplay at all? I played through the Dark Souls remaster recently and barely got through it with how poorly it has aged, but I'm definitely not going to pick this up then. I beat it a million times on PS3 anyway.

They tweaked some RPG elements so that the overall game was a bit more balanced. Magic isnt as stupidly easy as it was before. But in terms of level layout and boss design, pretty much identical, including the bad bits.

That said the graphics are amazing, if you have PS+ & can play it for free, its worth checking out just to see some of the old places looking so good.

 

[KirkDuyt]

They tweaked some RPG elements so that the overall game was a bit more balanced. Magic isnt as stupidly easy as it was before. But in terms of level layout and boss design, pretty much identical, including the bad bits.

That said the graphics are amazing, if you have PS+ & can play it for free, its worth checking out just to see some of the old places looking so good.

Oh it's free on PS plus? Then I'm definitely getting it.

 

[Siorac]

Also the boss runs are fairly tedious, especially old hero. Back then the thinking was that the boss run was part of the boss challenge, but by convention players have just learned to run past all the enemies so they (eventually) ditched the concept of major boss runs.

There's a balance here though: the bosses are far easier than in subsequent games. Old Hero, for example, is utterly trivial with the Thief's Ring and fairly easy even without it. So yeah, the run is absolutely part of the challenge.

Now imagine Old Hero's run but with Nameless King or Malenia as the boss. And now that I come to think of it, that's basically Darklurker in DS2. Man, feck DS2.

 

[largelyworried]

There's a balance here though: the bosses are far easier than in subsequent games. Old Hero, for example, is utterly trivial with the Thief's Ring and fairly easy even without it. So yeah, the run is absolutely part of the challenge.

Now imagine Old Hero's run but with Nameless King or Malenia as the boss. And now that I come to think of it, that's basically Darklurker in DS2. Man, feck DS2.

And who can forget reindeer feckland, that boss run is horrendous.

 

[Massive Spanner]

There's a balance here though: the bosses are far easier than in subsequent games. Old Hero, for example, is utterly trivial with the Thief's Ring and fairly easy even without it. So yeah, the run is absolutely part of the challenge.

Now imagine Old Hero's run but with Nameless King or Malenia as the boss. And now that I come to think of it, that's basically Darklurker in DS2. Man, feck DS2.

That's my main problem with it. The run backs to the bosses are way worse than the bosses themselves. It's horribly imbalanced and silly. Think subsequent games have nailed it way better. Elden Ring and Sekiro especially are spot on with their checkpoints for bosses. Bloodborne too has far more satisfying shortcut unlocks. This is just daft. It's not enjoyable.

And most of the time I die not because of enemies themselves but because of tiny little narrow sections where you hit the wall instead of the enemy or fall off as soon as you swing your sword. How's that in any way fun or challenging? Just awful mechanics and level design. I'm sure it was revolutionary at the time but it's painful now.

 

[Siorac]

That's my main problem with it. The run backs to the bosses are way worse than the bosses themselves. It's horribly imbalanced and silly. Think subsequent games have nailed it way better. Elden Ring and Sekiro especially are spot on with their checkpoints for bosses. Bloodborne too has far more satisfying shortcut unlocks. This is just daft. It's not enjoyable.

And most of the time I die not because of enemies themselves but because of tiny little narrow sections where you hit the wall instead of the enemy or fall off as soon as you swing your sword. How's that in any way fun or challenging? Just awful mechanics and level design. I'm sure it was revolutionary at the time but it's painful now.

I get your complaints but I played Demon's Souls after all the other From Soft games (well, before Elden Ring) and I still love it. It has the most interesting world, by far - each of the worlds are unique and distinct, with their own character and it all makes sense. It isn't half-finished like Dark Souls 1, it isn't terrible like Dark Souls 2 and it isn't filled to the fecking brim with cathedrals like Dark Souls 3.

The levels are designed so that you are meant to handle everything between two archstones in one go. As a trade-off, these sections are relatively short compared to some of the sprawling levels in later games. Tiny narrow sections where you fall off with one wrong move are a staple of FromSoft games though, each and every one of them is full of those! Remember Blighttown?

What I do hate about Demon's Souls, and I believe it should have been done away with in the remake, is the Item Burden. That's just tedious - though at least in the remake you can now send items straight to Stockpile Thomas from anywhere in the world. Also, the tendency system, while original and creative, is way too obtuse and there are simply too many crafting paths with their corresponding crafting materials that you have to grind for separately.

 

[largelyworried]

That's my main problem with it. The run backs to the bosses are way worse than the bosses themselves. It's horribly imbalanced and silly. Think subsequent games have nailed it way better. Elden Ring and Sekiro especially are spot on with their checkpoints for bosses. Bloodborne too has far more satisfying shortcut unlocks. This is just daft. It's not enjoyable.

And most of the time I die not because of enemies themselves but because of tiny little narrow sections where you hit the wall instead of the enemy or fall off as soon as you swing your sword. How's that in any way fun or challenging? Just awful mechanics and level design. I'm sure it was revolutionary at the time but it's painful now.

Have you played DS1 & 2 out of interest? DS1 is probably just as bad and DS2 is much worse. I've always hated long boss runs since day 1, but it was definitely a feature of the slow-Souls era.

 

[Pexbo]

I do love going to beaches but my main complaint is all the sand. Why are they so damn sandy?

 

[Massive Spanner]

I get your complaints but I played Demon's Souls after all the other From Soft games (well, before Elden Ring) and I still love it. It has the most interesting world, by far - each of the worlds are unique and distinct, with their own character and it all makes sense. It isn't half-finished like Dark Souls 1, it isn't terrible like Dark Souls 2 and it isn't filled to the fecking brim with cathedrals like Dark Souls 3.

The levels are designed so that you are meant to handle everything between two archstones in one go. As a trade-off, these sections are relatively short compared to some of the sprawling levels in later games. Tiny narrow sections where you fall off with one wrong move are a staple of FromSoft games though, each and every one of them is full of those! Remember Blighttown?

What I do hate about Demon's Souls, and I believe it should have been done away with in the remake, is the Item Burden. That's just tedious - though at least in the remake you can now send items straight to Stockpile Thomas from anywhere in the world. Also, the tendency system, while original and creative, is way too obtuse and there are simply too many crafting paths with their corresponding crafting materials that you have to grind for separately.

Fair enough. I do like that the world's feel suitably different. There are some good ones too. I enjoyed the castle with those mad rolling skeleton lads, for example. The jail and the last one with all the platforms can suck a dick, though.

And yes! Fecking hell yes the item burden is insane. Such a pain. Also hate that it has weapon degradation but when is that ever not annoying in a game?

 

[Massive Spanner]

Have you played DS1 & 2 out of interest? DS1 is probably just as bad and DS2 is much worse. I've always hated long boss runs since day 1, but it was definitely a feature of the slow-Souls era.

Nah I haven't played the Souls games, only BB, Sekiro and ER. I guess this is much closer to the former than the latter, which is fair enough.

 

[Moby]

Nah I haven't played the Souls games, only BB, Sekiro and ER. I guess this is much closer to the former than the latter, which is fair enough.

ER is DS4.

 

[Massive Spanner]

I do love going to beaches but my main complaint is all the sand. Why are they so damn sandy?

Plenty of beaches with stones instead of sand. They're more modern, they've evolved to suit the needs of the 21st century man.

 

[Massive Spanner]

ER is DS4.

Kinda the point, then, innit? ER did away with a lot of the annoying stuff from DS games, if that's the case. Item burden is way less, no weapon deg, much better checkpoints before bosses etc.

 

[Moby]

Kinda the point, then, innit? ER did away with a lot of the annoying stuff from DS games, if that's the case. Item burden is way less, no weapon deg, much better checkpoints before bosses etc.

Apart from the broken stuff like magic I guess.

 

[Ainu]

I love the environments of Demon's Souls. They're less intricate than some of the later areas but they nail the atmosphere and the variety is great. Boletaria and Latria are some of my favourite areas in From Software games, especially the latter with its super oppressive atmosphere. Valley of Defilement is basically the blueprint for all later poison areas. I thought they had held up great when I played the remake, especially with how stunning they look now.

 

[fergosaurus]

Finished this today, amazing game. The bosses were a bit hit and miss but Flamelurker and Maneaters were awesome fights. Enjoyed the Old Monk and Tower Knight too.

Spoiler

Valley of Defilement was a bitch, don't know how people coped in the original without the Sodden Ring.

 

[Siorac]

Finished this today, amazing game. The bosses were a bit hit and miss but Flamelurker and Maneaters were awesome fights. Enjoyed the Old Monk and Tower Knight too.

Spoiler

Valley of Defilement was a bitch, don't know how people coped in the original without the Sodden Ring.

Once you know the path, you can get through the swamp section quickly enough. I usually just equip all stamina regen gear and hold down sprint.

 

[harshad]

Started playing this. Started as a Knight but then moved to Temple Knight. The Halberd makes the close stairway encounters a bit more manageable. Octavia jumped into the fight without waiting for me and promptly killed himself. Guess his questline is now broken. Only got a key off his body. Have killed Phalanx so far in the Gates of Boletaria. So if Octavia's questline is important and there are some decent rewards for completing his questline, I could restart the game with a 3rd character.

Also, what is this Tendency mechanic?