# Demon's Souls



## The Groke (Oct 22, 2009)

Anyone?

Seems to be a bit of a cult hit already.

Odd game - action RPG with some unashamedly old-school mechanics and a thoroughly old school attitude to difficulty and level progression. Western "high-fantasy" as seen through the eyes of a very Japanese developer.

It is hard and it wants you dead.

The learning curve is steep.

It is certainly "unfair" and you do end up having to grind through levels, or back-track grind to level up enough to tackle the next bit.

Bleak, challenging, deep and...weirdly compelling.

I have to admit, I gave up on it completely at one point having tried _n_ times to get past one particular bad guy on the _very first level/world
_
Realising afterward that you can't just progress in a linear fashion and indeed have to ignore some areas and foes completely and return much later when you are powerful enough was what kept me plugging away and I am glad I did.

The game punishes you at every step and most foes can take you out with a few hits, which leads you tip-toe-ing through the game, shield raised and utterly tense with the antipation of some death-blow from the darkness.

Recommended for those who want a challenging, frustrating, weird, dark, epic, lengthy and slightly different game.

Checkout the Eurogamer import review. I am not sure if it is on general release in the UK or not yet, but you can pick up a US version or indeed the Chinese version which has English text.


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## tommers (Oct 22, 2009)

Sounds right up my street.  And it's from Atlus.

Unfortunately it's on PS3.


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## Sunray (Oct 22, 2009)

Hmm, nearly tempts me to get a PS3 as its a PS3 only title. 

Trouble with hard as nails games is that you need to spend more time on them than is healthy.


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## The Groke (Oct 23, 2009)

Sunray said:


> Trouble with hard as nails games is that you need to spend more time on them than is healthy.



Indeed - this is the problem I am currently having...

Most suggest there is a good 50 odd hours even in a fairly straight play-through and it is possible to spend more.


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## Awesome Wells (Oct 23, 2009)

apparently it is ridiculously hard.


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## The Groke (Oct 23, 2009)

Awesome Wells said:


> apparently it is ridiculously hard.



Unforgiving and with a very steep learning curve.

Persistence pays off though.


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## yield (Oct 23, 2009)

The Groke said:


> Unforgiving and with a very steep learning curve.
> 
> Persistence pays off though.



Thanks The Groke this sounds excellent! Can't find it cheaper than £38 though. Shame its not been released in Europe. You playing on the Asian or American servers?


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## ruffneck23 (Oct 29, 2020)

So an 11 year bump , game trailer here , and damn I'm excited , missed it first time round tommers


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## ruffneck23 (Oct 29, 2020)

this is pretty interesting too


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## Sunray (Oct 29, 2020)

Get this if you want a challenge.  
A challenge, so when you finally beat one nails boss the 1st time, you drop to your knees, throw the controller out the closed window screaming 'yesssssssss', start sobbing and the police find you days later wandering about a local wood.


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## ruffneck23 (Oct 29, 2020)

Sunray said:


> Get this if you want a challenge.
> A challenge, so when you finally beat one nails boss the 1st time, you drop to your knees, throw the controller out the closed window screaming 'yesssssssss', start sobbing and the police find you days later wandering about a local wood.


and that is exactly why I love the souls series


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## tommers (Oct 30, 2020)

Yeah, I haven't played it either. I wasn't going to buy a PS5 cos I struggle to get any time to play it as it uses the big telly and there's always other people watching stuff but I am very very tempted. It looks great.


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## tommers (Oct 30, 2020)

ruffneck23 said:


> this is pretty interesting too



Fuck. Stop it.


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## tommers (Oct 30, 2020)

Have you pre-ordered ruffneck23 ?


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## ruffneck23 (Oct 30, 2020)

No mate, Im not working atm so cant afford a ps5, however , one of my mates has pre-ordered 2 ps5's , and if i get the job im going for on Monday , I've asked him if i could pay in 2 installments for 1. If he is cool ( I'm pretty sure he will be ) Then I'm all over it. If not I can wait. Im still playing DS1  , might give 3 a go soon.

ETA he has just agreed


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## Sunray (Nov 13, 2020)

Was watching the 1st few min from this, graphically it looks amazing.  I'm playing Dark Souls at the moment so it really does look like a less refined version of DS1. I think From Software need to go back into the motion capture booth for some new enemy animations.


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## ruffneck23 (Nov 15, 2020)

Demon’s Souls reviews round-up – All the scores
					

This week, the headline title of the PlayStation 5 launch window, Demon's Souls, was released into the world to critical acclaim.




					www.vg247.com


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## ruffneck23 (Nov 15, 2020)

ruffneck23 said:


> No mate, Im not working atm so cant afford a ps5, however , one of my mates has pre-ordered 2 ps5's , and if i get the job im going for on Monday , I've asked him if i could pay in 2 installments for 1. If he is cool ( I'm pretty sure he will be ) Then I'm all over it. If not I can wait. Im still playing DS1  , might give 3 a go soon.
> 
> ETA he has just agreed


ETA not getting one as the pre-order int coming , cool though I can wait


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## tommers (Nov 15, 2020)

When do you think they'll be available again?


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## ruffneck23 (Nov 15, 2020)

tommers said:


> When do you think they'll be available again?


 havent got a clue, im not really in any rush , il prob get one early next year if poss, Demon's souls is the only game on it im interested it at the min.


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## trashpony (Jan 21, 2021)

I’ve posted this on another thread but as this is where people who have actually played the game are: is this suitable for a 14 year old? He knows it’s hard.


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## tommers (Apr 1, 2021)

It's just perfect. Not sure what else I can say.


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## bmd (Apr 1, 2021)

Where is The Groke? I miss him.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Apr 1, 2021)

trashpony said:


> I’ve posted this on another thread but as this is where people who have actually played the game are: is this suitable for a 14 year old? He knows it’s hard.


I can't think of anything specifically inappropriate about it. 
I mean some violence and a bit of grossness but nothing that I remember being  BAD.
Not played it  but  did watch a full playthrough of the original.


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## trashpony (Apr 1, 2021)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I can't think of anything specifically inappropriate about it.
> I mean some violence and a bit of grossness but nothing that I remember being  BAD.
> Not played it  but  did watch a full playthrough of the original.


sorry I forgot to update this thread. I posted on the ps5 thread instead. I bought it for his birthday and no, it really isn’t that bad.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Apr 2, 2021)

All of the stuff by these guys is fairly reasonable in terms of content. 
Some body horror type stuff especially in bloodborne.
Some semi-nudity in some games (I think Quelaag is probably the most explicit).
But overall fairly OK for someone in their mid teens.


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## ruffneck23 (Apr 5, 2021)

how you getting on tommers ? 

Sometimes I think it's easier than the others but I seem to be dying just as much...


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## tommers (Apr 5, 2021)

ruffneck23 said:


> how you getting on tommers ?
> 
> Sometimes I think it's easier than the others but I seem to be dying just as much...



The bosses seem loads easier, did Phalanx, Tower Knight & Fools Gold solo first time. I summoned somebody for Flamelurker, and Armour Spider and Adjudicator killed me once i think.

But I'm doing Depraved Valley at the moment and struggling with it, and also tried the second bit of Lost Isle and decided to "come back to it".  

It might be the grass instead of estus flask - you dont have that limit on how many times you can get hit now really (which i guess is why they changed it)

How about you?


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## ruffneck23 (Apr 6, 2021)

Loving it, had to do a fair bit of farming to get strong enough to beat a couple of bosses (found the fool tougher than I should have) but then found others really easy , now venturing further into each arch stone with varied success.

It's so nice to be playing a souls game that I know nothing about, cue walking around very slowly


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## tommers (Apr 6, 2021)

ruffneck23 said:


> Loving it, had to do a fair bit of farming to get strong enough to beat a couple of bosses (found the fool tougher than I should have) but then found others really easy , now venturing further into each arch stone with varied success.
> 
> It's so nice to be playing a souls game that I know nothing about, cue walking around very slowly


Haha, yeah I'm back to walking round with my shield up everywhere. 

Did Leechmonger last night. Killed me once cos I didn't know what to expect, second time stuck warding on, ran down with a flaming sword and killed him in about ten seconds. 

I'm quite confused by all the different weapon types, and making the Smith you need to use the one that isn't in the nexus seems a bit unnecessary. I've been checking what the different boss souls do before I do anything with them, don't want to miss out on anything nice.


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## tommers (Apr 7, 2021)

Bosses are definitely easier. Killed Dirty Colossus without knowing anything about him. Don't know if it's cos they hadn't responded to people's tactics yet (he is a classic "hide behind him and hit him" souls boss) but I didn't complete any boss in DS without at least a few deaths.


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## ruffneck23 (Apr 7, 2021)

Yep they definitely are easier, did the manhunter 1st time , the old monk ( although.... ) second time  , its just getting to them that can be tricky.

I am very much enjoying it though.


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## tommers (Apr 7, 2021)

ruffneck23 said:


> Yep they definitely are easier, did the manhunter 1st time , the old monk ( although.... ) second time  , its just getting to them that can be tricky.
> 
> I am very much enjoying it though.



Yeah, the normal monsters seem to be pretty tough still.  I managed to get through the swamp but that was a bit of a bastard tbh.  Especially when you press to roll and stagger instead . Been messing about in Tower of Latria today, that was fine until everything got covered in insects with human faces and those face hugger things can piss off.

I put down my summon to try to help somebody and was suddenly the old monk instead, which I wasn't expecting.  Fella got the easiest victory ever


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## tommers (Apr 7, 2021)

Just beat somebody as old monk. Cloaked myself by the door. Backstabbed him as he came in and then killed him while he was wondering what was going on  

Struggling with Maneater though, killed me a couple of times now.


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## tommers (Apr 12, 2021)

Finished it today. It was really good. The bosses were pretty easy, struggled with Old Monk just cos I'm crap at PvP but nobody else was that tricky. Felt very much like the first time I played DS. I don't think it's as good as that game but probably just cos I already knew what to expect. 

43 hours (but I was dicking about improving weapons for ages) and 186 deaths


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## tommers (Apr 12, 2021)

Well worth the 12 year wait and the 350 quid for the console to play it on


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## ruffneck23 (Apr 19, 2021)

Completed tt he other night , a little underwhelmed by the end game , but loved it all the way until then , new game plus has started


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## tommers (Apr 26, 2021)

ruffneck23 said:


> Completed tt he other night , a little underwhelmed by the end game , but loved it all the way until then , new game plus has started



Yeah, I presume there is a way to not kill the king and get a different ending?


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## The Groke (Aug 2, 2021)

bmd said:


> Where is The Groke? I miss him.


If he were still here (which he isn’t) I am sure the feeling would be mutual.


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## Chester Copperpot (Sep 3, 2021)

I finished this last night. All in all it was really enjoyable. Wasn't too hard once you've levelled up your character a fair bit. Went for a strength build with the knight which was fun. I'm nut sure I can be bothered to play through again with the same character in a + game though. I'd rather try a new character from scratch. I know it's not the Souls way but quite fancy playing through as a caster.


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## ruffneck23 (Sep 3, 2021)

magic users are great fun in ds but It makes the game easier imo


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