From Software It's another Demon's Souls thread god damnit

[Socur Toxanarosa]

Tomb of Giants has 1 boss. And you need to know about the skeletons for the boss to be a fucking joke.

If you're talking about Pinwheel, yes, I agree, it's a fucking joke. But the level before him is one of the best in the whole Souls series when it comes to connectivity and hidden stuff. As for 'enemies being a pain in the ass', well, almost everything in the Souls games is a pain in the ass, until you learn the proper ass movements to accommodate it and feel pleasure words cannot describe.

You can enjoy the area alright bro, i just don't.

Demon's Souls has areas that are bullshit too, but they have more significance in the world, like Valley of Defilement, i have a hard time imagining someone liking the trip to Maiden Astraea, but when you reach your destination, every shit that you passed through was worth it, the lore along with the execution make it worth it, Demon's Souls may not have the most mechanically elaborated bosses, but even so, some of them are between the best.

Actually, i think Maiden Astraea is the best "boss" in the series because the whole Valley of Defilement is Maiden Astraea, she herself and Garl Vinland are just the climax, pure brilliance.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Maiden Astraea à la Alphonse Mucha.

 

[Socur Toxanarosa]

I guess i couldn't even distinguish who is Dirty Colossus and who is Leechmonger, they are such a non factor

 

[sullynathan]

Man the man eater is such a shitty boss. Flies in the air for way too long and just knocks the player off the platform.

I actually found someone who invaded me as the yellow demon, guy was really weak. Killed him in 4 hits

 

[Socur Toxanarosa]

Man the man eater is such a shitty boss. Flies in the air for way too long and just knocks the player off the platform.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Maiden Astraea à la Alphonse Mucha.

I wasn't aware Mucha did shit anime faces.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

More colorful Astraea and Garl Vinland, though not flat enough to truly be in the style of Alphonse Mucha / art nouveau:

 

[praetor]

If Dark Souls was made in a similar way there'd be no 2nd bonfire in the Tomb of Giants or halfway through Blighttown. Would it be better?

it would be exactly the same. there's functionally very little difference between "bonfire" and "shortcut to bonfire"

anyway, i can't believe i'm saying this, but i kinda agree with sullynathan. as a game DeS is the weakest of the bunch (shittiest health system, shittiest magic system, shittiest combat system, shittiest bosses, absolutely awful tendency systems. understandable considering it was "the first of its kind", but considering the sequels improved massively on each and every one of those aspects...) that is only saved by exceptional atmosphere, visual design, writing, and a coherent plot from start to finish with little to no unanswered questions. the levels are par for the course for the series, ranging from excellent to atrocious. all that said, as a purely SP game first time playthrough, i'd still take it over DS3 any day of the week, but, as much as i dislike the game, DS3 has a significantly better replay value and is orders of magnitude better in any kind of multiplayer context

 

[sullynathan]

Gonna get back into this game this weekend. Valley of Defilement is killing me in NG+ for some reason

i can't believe i'm saying this, but i kinda agree with sullynathan

You wouldn't be the first

 

[sullynathan]

It's just annoying, the enemies are a pain in the ass, the darkness is gimmicky and the bosses are a fucking joke.

Yeah, Nito isn't a great boss. Never died to him and he did come off as gimmicky. I always liked the area for being a ridiculously dark area done right with no bullshit falls. It was also short with a teleporting bonfire.

 

[Socur Toxanarosa]

If Dark Souls was made in a similar way there'd be no 2nd bonfire in the Tomb of Giants or halfway through Blighttown. Would it be better?

it would be exactly the same. there's functionally very little difference between "bonfire" and "shortcut to bonfire"

anyway, i can't believe i'm saying this, but i kinda agree with sullynathan. as a game DeS is the weakest of the bunch (shittiest health system, shittiest magic system, shittiest combat system, shittiest bosses, absolutely awful tendency systems. understandable considering it was "the first of its kind", but considering the sequels improved massively on each and every one of those aspects...) that is only saved by exceptional atmosphere, visual design, writing, and a coherent plot from start to finish with little to no unanswered questions. the levels are par for the course for the series, ranging from excellent to atrocious. all that said, as a purely SP game first time playthrough, i'd still take it over DS3 any day of the week, but, as much as i dislike the game, DS3 has a significantly better replay value and is orders of magnitude better in any kind of multiplayer context

I think DS3 is the worst one by far, shit is so by the numbers, almost quit when they repeated the

Spoiler

stormruler gimmick

without even renaming it, can't get more lazy than this.

Demon's Souls = Dark Souls >>>>>> Dark Souls 2 >>>>>> Dark Souls 3


Some people that share this opinion also say that Bloodborne is on par with Dark/Demon's Souls, guess i need a PS4.

 

[Arnust]

Can we agree in that 2 is the best RPG if the series?

 

[sullynathan]

So I got the Moonlight greatsword, it doesn't even have the beam from the other games which is . My god, Valley of Defilement is so shit. If I don't get the white world tendency in this area then I'll be pissed because I do not want to beat this game a third time just because of that.

 

[Elwro]

You know you will

 

[Hobo Elf]

So I got the Moonlight greatsword, it doesn't even have the beam from the other games which is . My god, Valley of Defilement is so shit. If I don't get the white world tendency in this area then I'll be pissed because I do not want to beat this game a third time just because of that.

It hits through shields which is better than a flashy beam that you never use.

 

[sullynathan]

Game is thoroughly broken. Twice now, two pure white world events have not happened for no reason. I got the uber dragon slayer sword but the guy I was supposed to show it to doesn't show up in my game. Now I beat Maiden Astrea and got pure white world tendency, black phantom Garl Vinland doesn't show up and neither does selen Vinland. I restarted the game went back to the nexus and everything. Even worse, when I entered the valley of poo poo, the entire game slowed to a crawl and the physics fucked up. There was no floor at all, game is pure

At least this time I killed the maiden at the end.

 

[cruel]

AFAIK, the game resets tendencies if you exit in between and stay online connected

 

[sullynathan]

AFAIK, the game resets tendencies if you exit in between and stay online connected

So this shit is even more broken than I thought? What the fuck?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Tendency is affected by other worlds (players) if you're online and it tends to gravitate towards neutral again as I recall. The only way to ensure you're keeping your tendency where you think it is is by unplugging.

They also used to have tendency weekends where From would shift it one way or another with an announcement. This is all based on memory, mind you.

 

[Exhuminator]

After having finished all of FromSoftware's first person dungeon crawlers*, I'm finally getting into the Souls series. So I started with the first, Demon's Souls. I'm about 20 hours into it now. I pretty much did everything I could to make the game harder on myself. Meaning I'm not playing with a strategy guide, not using a royal magic user, playing offline, and not relying on fast rolling evasion tactics. Just a burly melee bruiser getting his ass kicked regularly (but learning every time). I've only finished areas 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, and 5-1. So I'm not even halfway done yet, but man this has been a helluva ride so far. Sometimes this game makes me want to break my controller in half yeah, but more often than not I really appreciate it respects the player's intelligence and capability. I guess my point is; Demon's Souls is still challenging in 2017, and has also aged very well. Now excuse me while I go fisticuff butt naked and bare fisted with the Flamelurker.



*By that I mean; KF1, KF2, KF3PS, KF3, KF4, ST, STA, Eternal Ring.

 

[Elwro]

Isn't playing offline actually easier due to you being able to manipulate tendencies?

Could you prepare a 'how a modern player can acquire / install / play older FROM titles on the PC' guide? I'd really appreciate something like that!

edit: I'd say you're halfway done...

 

[cvv]

After having finished all of FromSoftware's first person dungeon crawlers*, I'm finally getting into the Souls series. So I started with the first, Demon's Souls. I'm about 20 hours into it now. I pretty much did everything I could to make the game harder on myself. Meaning I'm not playing with a strategy guide, not using a royal magic user, playing offline, and not relying on fast rolling evasion tactics. Just a burly melee bruiser getting his ass kicked regularly (but learning every time). I've only finished areas 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, and 5-1. So I'm not even halfway done yet, but man this has been a helluva ride so far. Sometimes this game makes me want to break my controller in half yeah, but more often than not I really appreciate it respects the player's intelligence and capability. I guess my point is; Demon's Souls is still challenging in 2017, and has also aged very well. Now excuse me while I go fisticuff butt naked and bare fisted with the Flamelurker.



*By that I mean; KF1, KF2, KF3PS, KF3, KF4, ST, STA, Eternal Ring.

Playing offline is easier. Tendencies are not a thing and you can't get invaded.

Anyway, how would you compare DeS to the previous games? Do you feel Miyazaki made the game significantly better or does it feel like a natural successor of KF (game would be broadly the same even without Miyazaki)?

 

[Exhuminator]

Isn't playing offline actually easier due to you being able to manipulate tendencies?

Playing offline is easier. Tendencies are not a thing and you can't get invaded.

Playing online has some advantages though; you can request combat support from other players, and find helpful graffiti. Being able to take on bosses with other players in a co-op fashion is a big boon as I understand it.

Anyway, how would you compare DeS to the previous games? Do you feel Miyazaki made the game significantly better or does it feel like a natural successor of KF (game would be broadly the same even without Miyazaki)?

One thing I used to read from ill-informed reviewers about Demon's Souls, was it's a "spiritual successor" to King's Field. After playing DeS I realized that's bullshit. Also multiple members of FromSoftware are on record saying Demon's Souls is not a spiritual successor to King's Field, including Miyazaki himself.

There are some base similarities... the morose and tense atmosphere, fantasy theme, technically inclined combat, but they're very different beasts ultimately. King's Field is all about world exploration, secrets within secrets, puzzle solving, with combat serving as a side dish. Whereas Demon's Souls is the complete opposite. Demon's Souls' intense focus on combat combat combat makes the experience feel totally different versus the King's Field or even Shadow Tower games. I'd go further to say that Hidetaka Miyazaki's directing style is rather different than Naotoshi Zin. Miyazaki is less subtle and nuanced, but that makes sense in the context of the combat oriented narrative. As far as comparing difficulty; I'd say about equal. Yes Demon's Souls' combat is leagues more challenging than any King Field's. But King's Field's world navigation and puzzle difficulties are light years more complex than anything in Demon's Souls.

Could you prepare a 'how a modern player can acquire / install / play older FROM titles on the PC' guide? I'd really appreciate something like that!

I would simply use ePSXe and play ISOs. I don't know what this forum's rules are about posting links to download sites (as in where to download all the ISOs), but here's an ePSXe primer:

http://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/epsxe

http://www.epsxe.com/download.php

And I'd use a PS1 controller via USB adapter to play with.

 

[Gentle Player]

One thing I used to read from ill-informed reviewers about Demon's Souls, was it's a "spiritual successor" to King's Field. After playing DeS I realized that's bullshit. Also multiple members of FromSoftware are on record saying Demon's Souls is not a spiritual successor to King's Field, including Miyazaki himself.

There are some base similarities... the morose and tense atmosphere, fantasy theme, technically inclined combat, but they're very different beasts ultimately. King's Field is all about world exploration, secrets within secrets, puzzle solving, with combat serving as a side dish. Whereas Demon's Souls is the complete opposite. Demon's Souls' intense focus on combat combat combat makes the experience feel totally different versus the King's Field or even Shadow Tower games. I'd go further to say that Hidetaka Miyazaki's directing style is rather different than Naotoshi Zin. Miyazaki is less subtle and nuanced, but that makes sense in the context of the combat oriented narrative. As far as comparing difficulty; I'd say about equal. Yes Demon's Souls' combat is leagues more challenging than any King Field's. But King's Field's world navigation and puzzle difficulties are light years more complex than anything in Demon's Souls.

Well said, I fully agree. Another thing with regards to difficulty is that much of the difficulty of KF and Shadow Tower can be alleviated through online guides, whereas with the Souls games you still have to have some reflex skills to progress (particularly so in Bloodborne, which is actually too difficult for me, and Dark Souls 3). The challenge in the former games comes from exploration and finding secrets, particularly getting your hands on the Moonlight Sword (or Dark Defiler in KF2); and in Shadow Tower I had to draw my own maps in some instances. I'd certainly recommend playing without looking anything up on your first playthrough.

By the way Elwro, whilst the PS1 games run fine on ePSXe "out of the box", there are some issues with emulating King's Field 4 (the best game in the series) via pcsx2 - see here http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/King's_Field:_The_Ancient_City. In my experience, playing in software mode solves all of these issues except one - a certain area that doesn't load. This can be fixed by following the workaround on that wiki page, just follow the link. It's just a bit of a nuisance is all.

However, if you intend to play a physical copy of KF4 on a PS2, do not play the PAL version as I did first time around. For some absurd reason that I'll never fathom, the European release used a different English translation to the American. Whilst the American translation is not exactly stellar, the PAL translation is atrocious - I'm talking about weapons that are very clearly hammers being referred to as swords in the description. Just keep that in mind.

 

[Elwro]

Thanks, Gentle Player!