Demon’s Souls is most probably one of the most brutal games that I have ever played. I am sure that if it were a person it would do to you what the cover of the game shows, bombard you with arrows until you are killed. Of course, since it cannot do that, it instead attempts to psychologically break the gamer whilst bombarding the virtual you with some of the most challenging gameplay that you could possibly imagine. Despite these comments do not assume that it is a bad game, since it is quite different. This is now take two of typing this since wordpress decided to not autosave this entry and firefox decided to crash on me so sorry for any small errors here and there. Here is my first impressions and initial review on the game Demon’s Souls.
As soon as the game starts up you have to do one of the most important things that you can do in this game…. customize your 100% silent protagonist through a number of sliders. I personally think it is interesting how they have a slider that allows you to determine how male of female your character is. It gives the impression that whilst you can choose if your character is male or female, you can choose if you want to add some boobs to your male character whilst leaving the gentlemen’s region alone. Cheap laughs but anyway…. The hero remains silent throughout the whole game with very little interaction through text. The other characters in the game are interesting and unique from most games such as the Maiden in Black, who whilst may seem like a normal stat booster, has her eyes sealed with wax and “Keeps the flame lit to help adventurers”.
Here I would usually post a summary of the games storyline taken from the back of the game box and then debate it. However, my game is the English/Asian version and whilst it is almost exactly the same as the American version, has absolutely no English on the box or manual except for a small english handout. Therefore, please deal with my average storyline summary.
A kingdom known as Boletaria, ruled by King Allant XII is one day covered by a thick fog, cutting it off from the outside world. Word spreads that the King awakened a bring named The Old One. Whilst most of the world perished, it has been a story long told by adventurers however every one of them that has entered has not returned. Therefore, you, a genius hero who seemed to get knocked on the head quite a bit as a child gets the brilliant idea to enter the fog…. where he is imediately killed by a monster and sent to The Nexus, and told to save Boletaria by a lady named The Maiden in Black.
The story is there and prevalent through most of the game, with each level also having its own mini story with other characters, but it isn’t a dominating factor in the gameplay and it is only really there to ensure that you actually get an ending in the game. Unlike other games, it doesn’t really need a storyline to ensure great opinions from me when you have other factors to consider.
The graphics in this game are really good considering both the purpose and the location of this game. There was no intent to make it all decorative and festive like other games since you are evidently playing in a kingdom that has been cut off from the world and plagued by demons. Instead, the game leaves you with some really intriguing character designs (Except the hero customisation is a tad lacking in hairstyles) and the environment is usually dark and gloomy. However, the exterior environments are usually very pretty to behold. For example, I was walking around the mines of 2-1 when I came across an enterance out where I saw a floor text “Great View”. Looking up, I saw a really beautiful landscape infront of me which, whilst ravaged by demons, still looked graphically stunning…. at least until I realized that two enemies had discovered me and were trying to kill me.
The music in the game was actually something that whilst sounding nice when listening to it by yourself sounded really nice, some of the nicer tracks in the boss battles you couldn’t actually be bothered listening to because you had a monster 5 times taller than you trying to one hit KO you with a sword that makes your tiny one seem like a butter knife. But the music, whilst not something I would usually listen to and enjoy in other games, suit the environments well and are sort of soothing in between battles. I grew fond of the soft and gentle Nexus theme. The sound effects are good for the game as well, with swords clanging and fire cracking and monsters tearing off your face all sounding realistic…. okay except maybe the monster tearing off your face bit. For the Chinese/English version, I was expecting all the voice actors to sound Chinese-like however they all had perfect english and sounded like they were from an english speaking background, and apparently these are the same as they used in the American release of the game as well. I really liked the voice acting overall despite the fact that there wasnt a great amount of it… it added to the dark and gloomy environment of the worlds and the Nexus.
It must be made clear that the gameplay is not for any novice in gaming. If you havent been playing games for a few years and this is among your first few games, prepared to get stressed out since this is real hardcore gaming at its best. You start the game in a tutorial which is basic at best with you following instructions written in floor speak. You then end the tutorial with a “You Have Died” sign since you are pummeled by an enemy at the start of the level. Dying is more than it is in other games. Whilst all your items are safe, you lose all your souls (Ingame currency) as well as you lose half your life bar. That is right, when you die once, say bye-bye to your health bar. You must then go to a world and defeat a main boss to resurrect, and then be killed again later on. If you die, you can regain all your souls by revisiting the blood stain you left provided you don’t die again on the way there. The monsters can usually KO you in a few hits to begin with, with the worst monster in the first level killing you in maybe two hits if lucky. It took me about 3 hours gameplay to get to the first boss which essentially contained a main boss and at least 30 mini enemies which you had to find the right strategy to beat. To summarise, the gameplay is brutal.
Souls are important in the game, you are required to have them to purchase everything from weapons, healing items, both black and white magic spells, repairs and upgrades to your weapons and armour and most importantly, increasing your soul level which increases 1 stat of your choice. Whilst this is cheap at first for about 700 souls for the first upgrade for the Royal Class, it soon increases to several thousand souls each very quickly. In other words, most items will rip you off BIG TIME. Dependant on your World Tendancy, which is affected by many variables during gameplay, monsters can be made easier and harder whilst item drops can be made better or worse, however for a first play I have barely touched this feature.
The most rewarding part of the game is the online mode which whilst not being any sort of local co-op or direct multiplayer, does offer enough to make it one of the most unique online gaming experiences I have seen. Features are as follows:
- The most well known is the Floor Speak, which is where other gamers can leave you hints in the levels such as “X works best for the enemy ahead”, “I wish to be resurrected…”, “Beware of the enemies trap” et cetera.
- Blood Stains which litter the floors and allow you to view the last few seconds before another online player died. So if they died because of a fall up ahead, you would know about it.
- You will see the ghost of gamers from parallel realities and be able to see briefly what they are doing, allowing you to see if the path ahead is safe.
- A big one is the Eye Stones which you get throughout the game. These allow you to do various things such as ask others to enter your game and vice versa, kick out people from your world, invade others worlds to kill them as a red phantom or host a PvP duel.
I cannot comment on the replayability however I shall debate this in my final review. Overall however, I think this is one of the greatest games of 2009 and was a great game to end the 200X gaming era which brought us several new innovations in gaming. Personally I have only completed 4 levels however 1-1, 1-2, 2-1 and 3-1 so I have several dozen more hours to increase or decrease my favourability of this game. All in all however it seems like a game that shall ease my boredom for a looooong time to come.
To conclude I would like to answer one common question.
Should I get the Asian/English version or the American Version
It all depends on the region really. Because I am in Australia I decided to get the Asian/Chinese region version mainly because it was the cheapest available but also because the servers are closer to Australia and that the asian region is in the time region as us. If you are closer to America, then it would be wiser to get the American version of the game. Note that American servers are separate for the others which are all inter-compatible with each other. There is no plans for an Australian release date at this time and so far seems unlikely.
Overall Score
Characters: 9/10
For the game it is aiming to be, its use of characters is acceptable.
Storyline: 15/15
As stated above, the storyline is just something to justify an end to the gameplay, however the storyline is sort of connected to each of the levels and does branch out into other stories throughout the levels.
Graphics: 14/15
Except for a few issues with brightness depending on the location of your television, the graphics are pretty good for the locations in the game. I do wish the soul form aura was less noticeable through.
Music: 14/15
Voice acting, sound effects and music are all good… I just wish I could enjoy the music more.
Gameplay: 35/35
Merged the replayability marks with this. Honestly, as long as you can handle the toughness of the game, you will get dozens of hours of gameplay from this game and never get bored with it. The only game I know that rewards you for being slow.
Personal Opinion: 9/10
My only problem with the game was that it was so frustrating at the start I was pulling my hair out, however I grew to enjoy it a lot. It gets a 9 because of the frustration it causes quite often!
Total Score: 96/100
This game got an overall score of 96%, giving it an overall A+ Grade.
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