"Demon's Souls"

Demon's Souls (Demonzu Souru) is a console role-playing game from From Software exclusively for the PlayStation 3. With a dark fantasy theme, the player will set off into the heart of Boletaria, a kingdom of warriors that was destroyed after the appearance of beasts and demons. The game was described as a spiritual successor to the King's Field games.

Developer: FROM SOFTWARE
Publisher: SCEJ and ATLUS
Director: Hidetaka Miyzaki
Composer: Shunsuke Kida
Release date: Feb 5th 09 (JP) and Oct 6th 09 (US)

Gameplay:
Demon's Souls is an open-ended dark fantasy action RPG. Players are able to customize their own characters, setting the name, gender, hair style and other characteristics. Players face off against enormous beasts, making use of a variety of different weapons. The gameplay alters depending on what type of weapon the player wields. When utilizing the bow and arrow, the camera enters a close over-the-shoulder view. There are also various forms of magic that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner.

Online features:
-Players can find messages on the ground containing hints and advice that other players have left.
-Players can find bloodstains where other players have died, and view how their deaths occurred.
-Co-operative play allows three players to team up and play through different levels in the game.
-In competitive play, a player can force themselves into another player's adventure and play as their opponent.

/Thanks Wiki :)

Reviews thus far:
Edge: 9/10
Famitsu: 9/7/7/6
Dengeki: 95/85/85/85
Eurogamer: 9/10
RPGFan: 84%
PSW: 9/10
PixelVerdict: 5/5
Gamerlimit.com: 9.1/10
GamesRadar: 9/10

Video Reviews:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-demons-souls/57297
http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/demonssoul/video/6232014/d...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHymmFXyqnA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jlx_zgHHYk&feature=re... (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpvbLL8efaw&feature=re... (Part 2)

Picture Galleries:
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14242310/demons-souls/i...
http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/demonssoul/images/0/3/
http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/Demons_Souls/index.html
http://g4tv.com/images/2830/Demons-Souls/49384/
http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/photo-m.phtml?post_ke...

Official Websites:
http://www.demons-souls.com/
http://www.atlus.com/
http://www.fromsoftware.jp/
http://www.jp.playstation.com/

Purchasing info: (All US editions)
http://www.videogamesplus.ca/advanced_search_result.php?k...
http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/product_info.php?product...
http://www.axelmusic.com/productDetails/730865001323
(Will add more as new deals are found)

Edited by spartancog117 at 19:44:49 06-10-2009

I saw some gameplay of this and I must say, while the screens hinted at awesome, it looks completely shit. : (

Blueh at the topic but this seems to be the thread for it. I saw some new info about this:

Official site updated.

And apparently there is some kind of multiplayer in it:

It's a new sort of co-op called "Soul sign" When you die in the game (offline), you became a soul and can sign online. As a soul, you are summoned to aid other players on their adventure. The other one being still alive.

About death, when you become a soul, there will be blood left to the place that you died.
It seems the other player can find your blood, and you will be revived again that way. Together the players will be stronger and defeat harder enemies. There's also many blood scattered that have no use, so it's not going to be an easy job.

In network play, multiple players can enjoy adventures in the same world. The theme tying all this in is "mutually helping each other". During network play, if you due, you go into a condition called "Soul Body". In this condition, if you release a "soul sign", a player who is still alive can summon you, allowing you to still participate in the game. The system is designed so the living and those deceased and existing as soul bodies can cooperate and progress through adventures together.

One player can "summon" up to 2 "soul bodies"

Players can leave messages on the map for other players as well (could be used to indicate where treasure chests might lie, where enemies might be hidden, etc).

But as has been said before, in this thread and in the TGS thread they need to fix a number of issues before it will be fit to be released.

Long TGS 08 footage. (The first part of the trailer highlights the death issues, later on you see more of the game including a huge sword and some inventory management but you also see the camera issue quite clearly when the player goes inside the castle)

1. Frame rate, there are massive frame rate drops in the TGS gameplay feeds.
2. Camera is lagging behind and off to the side of the player too much, this is an issue that is enlarged with a low frame rate for certain camera solutions and they should change their solution to make it always have the player character in the center of the screen.
3. Death reaction animations, in the TGS trailer there are nice jump in attack animations for certain animations that look good but for the death there is a slow fall down to the ground and turn into a ragdoll and let gravity do the work. It really does not look good.
4. Delay it if it is not ready for a February 2009 release. The TGS footage showed that it had good rendering and functional game systems but the performance issues and various reactions made the game look less than ideal.


Speaking of Oblivion/Morrowind comparisons. Apparently the first version of this game came out the same year as Elder Scrolls: Arena but for consoles.


Famitsu screenies. It does look good but looks don't matter so much if the framerate is stuck at 15.

Edited by disc at 01:13:14 25-11-2008

Wow this looks really interesting, it seems like along with Valkyrie Chronicles and White Knight Story the PS3s finally starting to see some RPG love

I like what I can see of the concept, a bit unsure of the execution, but it still seems quite early.

The developers have said this a spiritual update to King's Field! \o/ I can't wait, it's been way too long since I've been played one of From's gloomy, disheartening, depressing, open-ended, brutal RPGs.

I alway think From games look great but when I actually play them they somehow turn into the most boring, uninspriring crap ever...

Edited by Scimarad at 07:26:37 25-11-2008

Doesn't look bad, at all. I'm quietly enthusiastic about this.

Looks quite good, but appears to be far more like an action game than an RPG, or maybe clips of someone navigating stat menus for 20 minutes would just have ruined the trailers style.

It's graphical style does seem like a rather nice mix of Oblivion with oversized swords, which is a good thing.

Looks interesting, hopefully those boss battles will be as epic as they have potential to be. Hopefully its control system and camera won't let it down.

It's ironic you mentioned the stat menus, Pirotic, if anything this game has waaaay too much stat porn. It's all actually a little confusing there's so much of it.

We like stats in our RPGs :)

I just really hope the framerate is a stable 30 (or even 60).

Because it looks pretty good:

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Source

Edited by disc at 08:40:47 23-01-2009

I hope they remember to but some colour into the game, everything looks very grey at the moment.

Pic 2 is interesting is it a dragon riding sequence and is the city in the background, a city that you can travel too in real time or just a painted backdrop?

Edited by Ged42 at 10:02:15 23-01-2009

Looks like Oblivion.

Should be a lot like Oblivion I think, the inspiration (King's Field) was a game where you could freeroam a big world I believe.

Edited by disc at 10:06:01 23-01-2009

I've been reading up on this and it's getting more and more interesting. The stats side of the game is absolutely crazy.

I'll have to see if I can get hold of a King's Field game in English, it turns out I've got Shadow Tower, a related game somewhere but it's Japanese language which might make it too difficult to get any idea of what Demon's Soul might be like.

Edited by Cappy at 10:19:57 23-01-2009

Screens look dull. Look like WKC, dull, flat colours. Not too impressed with Japanese devs so far this gen.

I hope then it doesn't suck as badly as Oblivion when it comes to story and leveling then :)

Kenshin001 wrote:
Screens look dull. Look like WKC, dull, flat colours. Not too impressed with Japanese devs so far this gen.

Did you buy Valkyria Chronicles, Eternal Sonata, Folklore, Blue Dragon or Tales of Vesperia?

Blue and Green is good?




Also it doesn't look anything at all like WKC. Very very silly game to choose to compare it to. Say Oblivion of Fallout if you must but WKC has green hills and deserts and is generally a bright game.

I played a bit of Folklore, it was OK. Not interested in the rest, not my cup of tea. Yes, they are colourful but with the exception of maybe VC not standout games I'm rushing to buy. That is what I meant, there is little in the way of Japanese games that I'm blown away by and I think they are behind the curve narratively and graphically. VC is very niche. The game looks like WKC in that the colours are flat, there is little vibrancy or warmth or good lighting.

And where would we find all these qualities you are talking about then?

In regards to the color scheme in my mind this kind of ties in with a game called 'Demon's Soul', can't say I'm surprised with the way it looks.

Cappy wrote:
And where would we find all these qualities you are talking about then?

Something like Uncharted I guess. Different genre I know but I think it's a decent benchmark of what a current gen game can be.

It's swings and roundabouts really, the character models in Uncharted are inferior to the ones in Valkyria Chronicles, they're pretty damned ugly at times. A few lighting effects and filters can't hide that, well not from me anyway.

What? We will not have that blasphemy spoken in this thread.

Well, they certainly look better. It doesn't really matter whether Drake and company have gazillions of animations and technology behind them. They look like douches, the lot of them. Especially the blond girl. I think it can also be easily argued that Valkyria Chronicles has a superior plot and draws its characters better than Uncharted. But making this kind of comparison is silly. For every Uncharted, there's a Bioshock. And for every Enchanted Arms, there's a Tales of Vesperia.

Japanese developers have decided to throw their weight primarily behind games that either strongly appeal to the Japanese base (handhelds and arcades) or make games for a worldwide base, and right now the pendulum way farther to the former. If you haven't played a lot in that area, you won't have a good grasp in what's going on in development here. Similarly, as console development doesn't and never has told the entire story about the strong PC developers there.

That they look better is debatable. VC characters look like a 1000 other anime characters to me and I can't see how you can easily argue it has a better plot. I agree Japanese devs focus on the Japanese market and I think that is why they are slipping behind. The Japanese scene has stagnated, they are not pushing themes or tech. Even Jp devs (eg. Kojima) have come to this realisation.

Says you who admit not to playing them. Look Kenshin, what's the point of your argument?

You can easily argue Valkyria has a better plot, because when you play both games, you find Valkyria has a lot of intricately drawn characters that go quite a bit beyond the usual ho-hum, a very interesting setting that is a great deal less tired than Uncharted and is not a stale "witty characters exchange Hollywood dialogue in a script stolen from a third-rate Indiana Jones rip off" plot.

This is not a West vs. East thing. Just like the console war, there is no such thing. Some games from Japan are better than some games from England or Sweden or Canada or the US and the same is true, vice versa. Together, they build the industry. No one country or area pushes the industry in tech or themes, they all do.

Nobody in the West developed a game recently where you were a pushy, hard-to-understand female private detective who investigates cheating spouses, nor one in which you journey through the imagination of Frederic Chopin as he lies dying, nor one in which you are one of the last surviving people out there searching for another survivor, nor one in which you trapped inside a city that will be destroyed in seven days and must forge a contract with demons to escape. Just like Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock showcase themes you don't often see developed in Japan.

As for technology, I dare you to take one look at Gundam: Senjo no Kizuna and not go, "Holy shit." But yes, most of Japan's technical achievements lie along making the weaker platforms sing because they're the most successful ones. Unfortunately you don't see a lot of Western developers trying as hard to makes games like Dragon Quest IX, Dissidia, Phantasy Star Zero or RIZ-ZOAWD on the DS or PSP.

Edited by JinTypeNoir at 12:26:49 23-01-2009

disc wrote:
Says you who admit not to playing them. Look Kenshin, what's the point of your argument?

Is that important though? What is the point of posting screens of games we have not played if not to comment on how a game looks? I've seen enough vids and screens of VC to know while it looks good the characters are not unlike a 1000 other anime characters we've seen. My ultimate point was and is Japanese devs are stuck in their little bubble and are being greatly outpaced by western devs.

@JinTypeNoir,

You could distill VC's story into as just as simplistic fashion. Is it not just childishly voice acted characters acting out some third rate Miyazaki rip off?

Of course it is a West vs. East thing since generally western games are leagues ahead graphically and the ones pushing tech. I was not impressed with what I saw of Gundam: Senjo no Kizuna, no. It looked like Armoured Core for Answer, poor textures and simplistic blocks, which was terrible. As for themes, you raised some good examples, though I was thinking more along the lines of moral choices which affect gameplay or address issues/conflicts. I guess forging a contract with a demon sort of fits that bill, but I don't see anything like the upcoming Heavy Rain appearing soon in Japan. Do you?