Demon's Souls Goes Black for Halloween

Demon's Souls Pure Black World Tendency

Altus has something special planned for Demon's Souls players this Halloween: the publisher is forcing all online players' world tendencies to shift pure black.

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA -- OCTOBER 29, 2009 -- Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today passed along an ominous warning to online players of the sleeper hit Demon's Souls for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system.

"Early reports from the Kingdom of Boletaria indicate that the Old One's power grows," announced Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales for Atlus, shuffling awkwardly under the weight of his full set of fluted armor. "We've discovered that the nefarious Demon will seek to descend the land in pure blackness on All Hallow's Eve. His minions will be more powerful, but the rewards for those who seek to challenge them will be greater as well. We don't know how long this dark tendency will last, but we do advise those prone to controller-into-LCD syndrome to proceed carefully." Jabbari then cackled as he quickly put a Thief's ring on his finger and disappeared.

Enemies will be more difficult to kill and terribly powerful black phantom NPCs will cover the land. The rewards will be much greater for those up to the challenge.

I can sense the fear in some of you, but let these words from Dorothy Thompson (which are strangely apt when applied to Demon's Souls) help you keep your eyes on the prize: "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live."

I hope to see some of you out there tonight!

Tags: sony, PlayStation 3, Atlus, Horror Week, Demon's Souls

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Tommy Ingallinera

October 30, 2009

@Rob-I don't know if I should play this weekend. I already killed all my named black phantoms and primeval demons. What if the world doesn't shift back automatically? I'll be trapped in super hard mode until my next playthrough.....

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Rob Savillo

I say if you've already done those things that you're probably close to beating the game anyway. Atlus is going to do the work of 20-30 Stone of Ephemeral Eyes for free, so you might as well take advantage of it for some awesome soul/ore farming. 4-2 in pure black can net more than 80,000 souls in one run, and you're much more likely to see ore chunk drops. Then just beat the game, and you'll be able to bring your worlds back to white.

Chris "Cosmo" Ross

October 31, 2009

The black phantom's overwhelmed me, but luckily I had just spent most of my hard-earned souls.

David Matos

The more I hear about this game, the more I really want to play it. I stayed away because of the tag line "a Japanese diablo 2" which doesn't sound that great to me. But a lot of details I have heard have intrigued me about this.

David, maybe this can help push you over the edge: Kotaku published an [url=http://kotaku.com/5392920/in-praise-of-hard-games]article[/url] -- "In Praise of Hard Games" -- focusing on Demon's Souls. I think the feature makes the case well that this game is an experience you shouldn't miss.

Jason Wilson

I was too buried in freelance work to even look at my PS3, let along fire up Demon's Souls. Sad.

Jason, I believe pure black world tendency will last all weekend, at least according to [url=http://www.atlus.com/forum/showpost.php?s=528ab3fecc174c18979fb38101431faa&p=146087&postcount=14]this post[/url] by Atlus. I played a little this morning and the message was still being displayed, so you still have a chance!

November 01, 2009

@Rob, After doing some research into it I decided to take the plunge and get it. While it seemed ok at first, the body/soul gameplay mechanic drives me bonkers. It seems to me that it just adds artificial difficulty. I didn't even notice the black world tendency crap, nor did I see any of those black phantoms. Hopefully with some more time, the game will open up a bit more.