Finish Demon's Souls in an hour

By Robert Purchese Published 19 October, 2010

This man can.

Demon's Souls isn't hard - a Japanese man can finish it in under an hour.

Known as "alternalw", this quasi-mythical being can go from beginning to end in 54 minutes and 54 seconds. That's how precise he is.

He skips a lot of the game's enemies by running or rolling past them. He can't do that with the bosses - not that that appears to slow him down.

The evidence is on his YouTube Channel (via Kotaku). Avoid watching if you don't want to spoil the Demon's Souls surprise.

Demon's Souls is renowned as a rock-hard action role-playing game. It was eventually released on PS3 in Europe in June.

Die part way through a level and all the souls (currency) you have collected stay with your corpse while your soul goes back to the start. If you can fight back, you can retrieve what you lost. But if you die again, all will be lost.

Complimenting that is an intriguing online mechanic that means other players can leave clues or play tricks on you as you cautiously progress. They can even invade your game world as helpful or harmful entities.

Demon's Souls is frustrating and merciless and because of that, we decided, it's one of the best RPGs of this generation - Eurogamer's Demon's Souls review elaborates.

Suitably impressed, Eurogamer tracked down game director Hidetaka Miyazakifor an illuminating chat.

Eurogamer exploring the first 15 minutes of Demon's Souls. Quite the contrast.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • stevetuck #1 2 years ago

    Slow news day huh?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #2 2 years ago

    i cant be arsed to look but this must be on a newgame+++ play through there is no way you could do this from a level 1 clean save

  • jag10 #3 2 years ago

    but how long was his first playthrough?

  • butler` #4 2 years ago

    his thumb must hurt after all that rolling

  • OnlyMe #5 2 years ago

    I can't even begin to fathom the amount of hours he's spent playing this.

  • GreyBeard #6 2 years ago

    If you watch the video, it is a brand new game, complete with character creation!

    Very impressive skills.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #7 2 years ago

    @greybeard

    Then i apologise for doubting, thats insane, but i still dont want to watch as it will take some of the fun away from it for me.

  • neems #8 2 years ago

    Of course, once you know the levels it's not really that hard, you can pretty much just charge through them.

    Not that I could do it, although I could rush a few of them I reckon.

  • Nabokov #9 2 years ago

    I used yesterday approximately 54min54s to try to beat level 3-2 demon, couldn't do it. I'm still positive that one day I can finish the game.

  • Kanselier #10 2 years ago

    @neems

    The worlds are not challenging if you know where to go and how to act which is clearly something this guy does. The bosses however are very challenging no matter what Soul Level you are on. Kudo's to this guy :)

  • slickster #11 2 years ago

    this guy is just running past all the enemys. how can you class that as completing the game properly.

  • thedaveeyres #12 2 years ago

    That is insane.

  • FogHeart #13 2 years ago

    This is the third time he's used 'compliment' rather than 'complement', and the third time I've brought it up. Either he's doing it deliberately to piss me off or he doesn't ever read the comments on his news items.




    Bah.

  • OnlyMe #14 2 years ago

    Uhm, I seriously doubt it's possible to one-shoot the bosses with a new character and untrained skills.

  • apoc_reg #15 2 years ago

    Ha impressive but a lie!!!

    It should say in an hour (after your played for 40 hours and your character has all the best spells!)

    EditL @greybeard

    Wow thats insanely impressive then!
    Edited by apoc_reg at 19/10/10 @ 11:16

  • overcorpse #16 2 years ago

    ^^ Most people ignore grammar Nazis,they tend to have better things to do.

  • FogHeart #17 2 years ago

    Whoah, hold on, I wouldn't correct anyone in the comments section, but people who write for a living, where the quality of their work affects their career, are going to have a vested interest in getting their grammar right.

  • mkreku #18 2 years ago

    54 minutes? After 54 minutes I'd managed to crap my pants and die ten times.

  • RedSparrows #19 2 years ago

    no fogheart, YOU'RE A NAZI. ACCURACY BE DAMNED, I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO BE DOING, LIKE COMMENTING ON HERE.

  • miiiguel #20 2 years ago

    Everytime someone does a (self) acomplishement like this, or Achievements (last week), or whatever, the comments sections are full of bashers. This community is very jealous.

    Someone who does shit like this it's most likely to prove themselfs that they can. Not to show that they are better than us, people who have fullfiling lifes and "don't care"...
    Edited by miiiguel at 19/10/10 @ 12:12

  • cherryuk #21 2 years ago

    the rolling past the enemies is a good strategy, because the game will put you back at the beginning every time, this is what makes it so frustrating!

  • kosigan #22 2 years ago

    Jhsdf sdf arobfgv wefv spwsd qioasmncv asdfksdf qipzmf.

    Not being bothered with little details like accuracy of spelling, I'm sure that Fogheart will be able to make complete sense out of the preceding sentence. Those for whom writing is their paid profession, however, should be bothered about accuracy of spelling.

  • arcam #23 2 years ago

    It is an accomplishment, just not one you feel is worthy enough. Not everything we do benefits society, and we shouldn't feel guilty about that. Climbing Everest or learning the guitar part to Smoke on the Water don't contribute anything to society but they are accomplishments too.

  • randompanda #24 2 years ago

    Biker_Bob

    Avoid the spelling Nazi's what exactly? Misuse of apostrophes?

  • miiiguel #25 2 years ago

    @Biker_Bob : nah man, you're totally wrong with your judging thing, you don't even know what's my gamertag. What anyone do with their life it's their buisness. And I do not show off anything - and you should know better.
    Way to kiss and tell hey buddy? Just because I told I aim for 1K in every game. I guess I did the right thing to take you out of my friend's list, I knew you were the judging type. No, don't worry, I'm not like that.

  • miiiguel #26 2 years ago

    I am not the judging type, I just think there are better ways to spend your time that both give you a sense of accomplishments and someone else benefits from that as well. Spending lots and lots of time extra on all games to reach 1000G is bordering on obsession. It is not judgmental just a fact.

    If you think about this you probably find it paradoxical. Anyway, the operative words are "your time". And I pay my IRS and VAT, thank you very much. And, don't pull that stunt on me, you know I removed you because of your patronising regarding my gaming goals, and kept saying that I was just being too competitive and e-penis whatnot. I couldn't care less about how other ppl get their kicks from, not my shit. Have a nice fulfiling and "do-goodie-goodie" life.

  • Gecks #27 2 years ago

    berating people for how they spend their time? via the medium of the eurogamer comments section? eurogamer, the videogames website? have i stepped into some sort of surreal, existential sit-com?