[PS3] Demon's Souls

Wasn't planning on making a thread for this game, but it is turning out way better than I expected. See some previous discussion about it in the October Video Game Preview Thread (just ignore some of the...um..."debates" that were going on in the thread):
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=175150

Rather than describe the game, it might be easier to link to some video reviews (currently at ~90 at Metacritic):
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Basically a really difficult (but not cheap!) action RPG/dungeon crawler with some innovative online features.

I just started playing Friday night, and I'm really liking it a lot so far. I was worried that the difficulty would be a hindrance (at least for me), but that's been far from the case so far (to be fair, I picked one of the easier classes to start off with, and it may become way more difficult later). The game is just a lot of fun, especially the combat. The level progression is pretty nice too. I started off as more of a ranged spellcaster, but I've started to focus more on strength, endurance, etc., and getting some good equipment. Now, I'm starting to enjoy melee combat against enemies that used to easily kill me. As you can imagine, this can be extremely satisfying. Still early, but the game definitely seems GOTY-worthy to me.

For those of you that have the game, or plan to get it (which should be nearly all PS3 owners IMO), here's a nice reference site:
http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/intro

FYI, if you haven't heard about this game until just now, don't be surprised. I wouldn't say it came out of nowhere since it did get some good impressions in Japan (and via importers). But it almost didn't make it to the US. Sony developed the game (along with From Software...well, more so them), but they weren't going to bring it to the US, even though they did all the English localization. Fortunately, Atlus was able to obtain the rights for the game and I'm glad they did. But not a lot of marketing done (Atlus doesn't even really market their "big" titles), and sales expectation probably weren't very high. Any success this game has will likely be due to the great word of mouth it is receiving.

 

My GOTY comment is pretty much independent of other games being released this year. IMO, it has all the makings for a GOTY (certainly could have been one in previous years). A deep gameplay system that is very well designed, a fresh take on the genre, lots of strategy (including great boss fights), great atmosphere, lots of content to keep gamers happy, very few flaws IMO (and the ones it has are relatively minor), etc. It may turn out that there will be a lot of GOTY-worthy games this year, including Demon's Souls. If so, that just means we all have a lot of great games to play through.

edit: On another note, I cannot believe that you can actually beat the boss in the tutorial stage...although I guess a video kind of proves you can:
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I think I took two steps, saw the boss, stared in amazement, and then was promptly killed in one swipe.

 

I define GOTY as the best game of the year, not what was voted as the best game of the year. Great games shouldn't be penalized for not being played by the majority of gamers (largely due to a lack of marketing).

Unless you mean by official GOTY awards (as vinsensual was alluding to), I don't know what you mean. This is very much opinion-based, so there probably isn't any "we'll see." If you like FPS online games and not difficult dungeon crawlers, MW2 might be your GOTY. On the other hand, if you like this kind of game, then I think it could very easily be GOTY (or even better). Either way, both games will likely be great at what they do.

It is difficult to compare. I think there are some aspects of Demon's Souls that are WAY better than those games (particularly combat), and it definitely has some nice innovative gameplay (it is also the only one with online multiplayer). On the other hand, those games definitely offer some great experiences that aren't available in Demon's Souls (e.g., deep dialogue systems with NPCs), but then again, you wouldn't expect to find that in a dungeon crawler.

Personally, I don't really find anything wrong with that statement. They're all great games, so it just comes down to preference. FWIW, I've actually seen a lot of people call it the game of the generation...don't know if I'd go that far, unless the game gets even better.

I still haven't played around with this, but players are more or less picked at random I believe (well, not really random, but not by users). IIRC, there is a level cap on Black Phantoms (meaning no player can invade your game if he is at a MUCH higher/lower level than you). I'm guessing that might be the same for Blue Phantoms too. Otherwise, I'd just pick one of my friends that is at level 400, and we'd cruise through the levels.

I think you can somewhat coordinate things if you put the effort in. I think the way it works is that a player will put down a stone in a level, and if another (living) player picks up that stone, you can get summoned into their world. So if you plan things out, you might be able to play together, although this obviously wasn't part of the game design.

It is a bit clunky compared to other games (well...non-dungeon crawlers I think?), especially if you want to play with specific friends. Might be something they should improve upon if they do somehow get to work on a sequel. Just having the ability to play with others is pretty awesome though, and it almost seems to work better that players are randomly chosen.

 

Replace GOTY with "Best Game of the Year" in my posts. Problem solved.

 

Read my response in the October thread. Basically the same here. I don't really want to make this thread to be 2-3 pages about definitions of GOTY, online vs offline, Modern Warfare 2, etc. instead of Demon's Souls. I probably should have just reworded some of my sentences in the OP.

Sort of back on topic, the narrative in Demon's Souls is practically nonexistant, and probably my only major complaint (maybe not so much a complaint, but it could have been that much better with a slightly more involved storyline...what they have is decent). I'm still early in the game, which is where most of the story is presented, so it hasn't really bothered me yet. But the next 30+ hours will probably just involve dungeon crawling.

 

Yeah, that shocked me a bit too. Guess part of the always online aspect of the game...that, and another thing to make the game difficult.

What class did you pick? The Royalty class, which I went with, makes things WAY easier early on (especially compared to a few other classes, like Barbarian I think). It all evens out eventually, but this class has its advantages (soul level of 1, MP regen ring, Soul Arrow attack, decent sword and shield, etc.). I didn't die at all up through the first boss because of that. In fact, the "Red Eyes" demon was relatively easy to defeat for me early on thanks to Soul Arrow. I've read that others have had a really tough time defeating him, even after putting in several hours. This would feel like cheating if the game wasn't already so difficult.

Make sure you get the Cling Ring as well. That should make things easier as well.

Seems like the game has sold out in a bunch of stores. They probably didn't stock many copies (or even sell the game at all). Amazon has it stock (both standard and deluxe editions), and I think the preorder goodies would still be included. If only people didn't abuse the ECA coupon code, you could get it from there for 10% off.


Didn't get to play much today, but it was a bit of a strange experience. I was playing 4-1, which for me is pretty good for getting souls and practicing my melee combat. Found my first Crystal Lizard by chance, and thought it was escaping, but it seemed like he got caught on a ledge or something. I just used my trustworthy Soul Arrows. Got some Darkmoonstone too, which is probably the ore that I was most interested in (helps forge "Crescent ___" weapons, which add magical damage and MP regen to weapons). Later, after reentering the world to get more souls, I saw two skeleton enemies instead of just one. One of them was red, guess like a Black Phantom. I was still offline though, so I guess this was just some randomly generated special Black Phantom enemy. I read about NPC Black Phantoms, but I thought they were specific to certain levels and locations. Guess not.

Been trying to work on my stats so I can equip the Purple Flame Shield from 1-1 (by the dragons roost). The Royalty class starts off a little low in Strength and Endurance, so it takes a bit of work to equip these kind of items. Right now, my Strength is good enough, but the shield puts me over 50% of my equipment threshold, so I'm a little slow. I'd like to improve that a bit since I prefer to be a little fast and not drain my stamina so quickly. I actually had a pretty good shield before this (Knights Shield +3 I think?), but I think the Purple Flame Shield will come in handy thanks to its fire resistance.