Demon's Souls - Game Review

Demon's Souls - Game Review

Genre: RPG
Developer: From Software
Released: A long time ago
Price: Probably cheap by now
Supplied: Bought used back in the day
DLC: Nope

This is the game that started it all for me and many other people. So why am I now here and writing this? Simple, I replayed through the entire game just recently and had some thoughts to share on it. I have played it all the way through to a platinum trophy in the past and decided to give it another whirl in anticipation for the launch of Dark Souls 3 in a few weeks.

Much of the game's overall design and theme does not change between games but there are a lot of small differences which impact the quality of the experience. Things such as stats being removed or added and other quality of life changes for the better through iteration.

I played through this whole game as a Royal this time instead of a Thief. I usually run a Thief but I wanted a different experience. Starting at level 1 is not really as detrimental as the game might make you think initially. A lot of character power comes from their equipment anyways.

One thing that I noticed immediately was that, when leveling up, you cannot add and subtract stats in real time. While this is not a devastating problem, it definitely hurts the decision making a bit when leveling up in large quantities, being unable to remove stats if you decide to do something slightly different.

Another thing I noticed, annoyingly, was Item Burden. Leveling up Vitality gives more room to carry around various items and equipment but if you get to heavy you are unable to pick up anything further without using the Herculean Ring. This becomes a frequent problem because it is extremely easy to fill up on various shards and stones and even stumble upon equipment that weighs an absolute ton. This absolutely detracted from my enjoyment of the game and really broke immersion when it happened.

One thing that seems good on paper but is not so good in practice are the Soul boosting items. The Silver Bracelets and Ring of Avarice. Both of these items boost the amount of Souls gained from killing monsters and seem like basically mandatory equipment to get the most out of your adventuring. While I love the idea of gaining more Souls, it really cuts into equipment diversity a bit.

The things that I still love about the game, though, are the things like useful regeneration and consumable healing items. Having a healing ring is handy when cruising around most places and can really save the player on healing items over time. It is not so practical in boss encounters, though, where incoming damage is often very deadly. The Adjudicator's Shield is also nice when it's fully powered up and even at a low level is pretty nice when two-handing a weapon for passive regeneration.

While a lot of people think the Estus Flask is an upgrade to the spammable herbs, I am not so sure. It is just as easy to get killed having a hundred herbs as it is having a hundred Estus Flasks. At least the herbs don't take a hundred years to consume and are a little more forgiving on boss encounters. I am a bit mixed as far as the MP goes. Having magic charges is a nice alternative but is a lot more limiting. On the other hand, if you have no MP healing items then it is not much different. The Fragrant Ring does heal MP passively but it's really slow and can't be used for heavy MP use situations.

The atmosphere in this game is as good as any other game in the Souls lineage. While a lot of people are overly frustrated with the Valley of Defilement(and rightly so) I do not have as much of an issue with it. It has one of the best bosses in any of the games to date as well, the Maiden Astraea. I personally found the Shrine of Storms to be much more challenging. After the first boss the whole area became much more treacherous. The Cloud Skates shooting deadly javelins long-range was exceedingly frustrating without a Thief's Ring equipped. Not to mention the Grim Reapers and the Lurker enemies. This place in particular is extremely difficult without a bow. Finally, The Tower of Latria, my favorite place in the game. It's extremely creepy and has some of the most haunting sounds with the bells and the screams and singing.

Conclusion
I still really like this game a lot. It has some problems like Item Burden, lethal camera angles, accidental ledge vaulting, and the stupid Crystal Lizards which endlessly troll the players, but it still shines in the end. The music is not overall to my taste but the track for the Maiden Astraea battle was particularly striking. The lore being spread across all manner of items and hints of dialogue is still an excellent way of putting together a narrative that is compelling, but not necessary to the overall enjoyment of the game.

Recommendation
If you like Dark Souls and possibly even Bloodborne, then you should definitely give this game a shot. It may seem a bit dated in some areas but it still has most of the nuts and bolts in the right places. It also still has plenty of challenge for those willing to brave the worlds.