Below is an email I sent to Joey about my first nights experiences with Demon’s Souls. It’s not in the format I usually write on the blog, but I figured it captures my excitement for the game.
One thing I’d like to add is the online component. Every now and again you’ll see the ghostly outlines of other players running around, fighting, dying. It’s jarring at first, but eventually it kind of builds this weird sense of being alone, but also being around allies. All these people are going through the same struggles as you, but you can’t interact with them at all.
Also, there’s a warning system that allows players to leave glyphs warning against traps, ambushes, enemies, and a ton of other things. You can rate these warnings which gives the original message leaver a health boost.
Lastly, if a player dies, he leaves a bloodstain, which serves as a spiritual “imprint” showing how that player died, which you can replay to get hints as to the hazards ahead.
All in all, Atlus made an INCREDIBLE game, that’s both familiar, and completely unique.
Demon’s Souls kicks ass.
Graphics are beautiful, combat is realistic-(ish), challenging and rewarding. The game is truly non-linear, in that it throws you into a massive area and says “You figure it out, dummy.” No maps, No Radar, no guidance on where to go. The entire time I was playing I was worried about dying at any second, which happened a LOT. The nice thing about death however is that the demons you’ve already killed are reborn where they died. You keep all your items, you just lose all your souls.
First moment I knew I’d enjoy the game is when I stumbled on a message saying “You need to be soul level 50 ahead” and saw some armored dude with a footmans lance. I figured, I’ve seen a lot of bloodstains earlier on from people that got killed by weak enemies, how hard could this fucker be? So I charged him, got instantly impaled and died. :D Then I wanted my souls back, so I rushed in to where he killed me, touched my bloodstains and regained my souls. He didn’t care for it so he started chasing me. And chasing me. And chasing me. He, being an demon, easily outpaced me once my stamina dropped out, and impaled me again, Fortunately, where I died this time was away from his respawn point and I was able to harvest my souls.
The point where I realized I really liked this game was when I spent twenty to thirty minutes hacking my way through the castle, finally found something in the form of an armored knight surrounded by demons. I firebombed them, hacked the rest up. The dude said “thanks for helping me, here’s a looking glass, now I’m outtie” and just stalked off, hacking other demons up in his wake. I followed him for a bit, until he started going where I had already been. The area I found him in was a complete dead end, and aside from the looking glass, there was absolutely no point to the time it took me to get to him. Also, the looking glass isn’t magic, and he didn’t give me any quests. It just let me see things farther away. :D
The point I fell in love with the game is when I finally found my way to an outside area of the castle. I saw a pair of HUGE dragons lounging on a Cliffside, lazing about like cats. There was a warning on the ground (as if I needed it) to not go forward unless I had fire protection. I didn’t. There was a small side path along the cliff below them so I crept along there, found a body with some treasure and snagged it. At that point the dragon took notice of me and the cliff face started trembling. I immediately started running back, almost mis-stepped and fell headlong off the cliff. I barely cleared the cliff face before the dragon let out a gout of flame at my back. The flame BARELY touched me, but the heat was enough to leave me a sliver away from death. I looked at Jenn and asked her “Am I supposed to fight this thing or something?? What the fuck do I DO?!” No clue. I backtracked a bit and found some stairs that led to a long stretch of wall (the parapet? Like, the area where archers repel attackers). There was a gauntlet of warriors along here, not a problem for a bad ass knight like me. Except as soon as I walked out, I realized the dragons had a perfect line of sight on me, and didn’t appreciate me trying to rush the bridge. It turned into a game of cat and mouse where I would run out, poke a demon warrior with my sword, then hightail it back before the dragon had enough time to rush me. I’d deal with the demon in the closed in area that the dragon couldn’t get into and repeat. I had to do this about 5 times, then I had a clear run. I fucking hightailed it as fast as I could, holding my breath, and I JUST barely cleared the other side before dragon wheeled around and unleashed his attack. I won! Although at this point I wasn’t sure if I had just snuck past a mid-level boss only to stumble onto the higher level boss. There was a lever, so naturally I pulled it. It opened a massive gate, and then I just kept going. The next area as a staircase leading down, ringing the square tower. A little exhilarated from my flight from the dragon, I Wasn’t as cautious as I should have been, took a mis-step, and plummeted to my death. Countless demon souls, escaped being roasted by a dragon twice, and I met my fate from being clumsy. L Needless to say I didn’t attempt to go back for my souls. Fortunately, the gate I opened lead to a massive demon right where you teleport in to the area, so I didn’t have to try to fight my way back.
The demon “boss” was cool. He was a massive pile of black ooze that ballista bolts out of him. He had a mass of kite shields all over him, and would spawn little oozes that had kite shields and little spears as well. The trick was to get behind him where he had no shields. It took about 20-30 minutes of running in, striking, pulling back out. Tactical, chaotic, satisfying. I beat him, and as such regained my body!
Up until this point, dying was at worst, an inconvenience. I lost all my souls, which I use to improve stats, upgrade and repair weapons, and buy supplies, but since the demons re-spawn, I could build up my souls back just fighting to my death site, and if I find my body, essentially double my souls. NOW if I die, I lose my body, which cuts my total health in half, and I have to go through a rigamarole to get it back. This game is SICK awesome.
