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Making a deal with Demon's Souls

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Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Demon's Souls

You might remember my 30-minute dip into From Software's harder-than-hardcore role-playing title Demon's Souls last week. I've put a few more hours into it since that first play session, and I think the two of us have established an interesting "working relationship." Basically, the game has agreed not to help me in any way, and I have agreed to keep playing it.

If Demon's Souls were a person, and it presented this deal to me in a contract, that hypothetical person would likely spend the following few hours picking subclauses out of its teeth. It's a raw deal that places all of the burden upon me, the player, to prove myself in the game's detached, arbitrary (i.e. "bullshit difficult") world. Meanwhile, Demon's Souls only has to sit back and keep throwing dragons at me. Dragons who are also throwing fire.

It's a raw deal, but I ultimately respect the game for it.

 

Let's keep imagining Demon's Souls is a person; for some reason, I find that really funny. This is how our conversations typically go:

Me: Okay, I just killed that giant, fucked-up boss. Where do I go now?

Demon's Souls: ...

Me: May I have a hint?

Demon's Souls: ...

Me: Please?

Demon's Souls: Well, there's a room behind this one...

Me: Okay, I'll go there.

Demon's Souls: ...and it's full of guys you aren't even close to being ready to fight yet. See? One of them just looked at you, and you died.

Me: I had like 5,000 souls, you asshole.

Demon's Souls: ...

Me: Fuck you.

Demon's Souls: ...

The most important lesson I've learned from playing this game is not to listen to the disembodied voice I ascribe to it. It is a bunch of data on a disc, and it has no larynx.

The other main thing I'm picking up is that I'm on my own. The game won't tell me where to go, what to do, or even how to use the goddamned bow (I figured that out by myself, don't worry). The payoff here is that after a little trial and error -- mostly error -- I figure out a path that will work for me. This process is way more satisfying than I expected it to be.

"Hey, I figured it out!" I tell Demon's Souls when I finally make some progress. "Aren't you proud of me?"

Demon's Souls does not reply to that, because it is an asshole.

 
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Jason Shearer
July 03, 2012

I thought Demon's Souls was a lot easier than Dark Souls, but there's a reason for that. I actually played Dark Souls first (I didn't get a PS3 until last December) and put 200+ hours into it. By the time I played Demon's Souls, I was accustomed to the game mechanics already. After soloing the Four Kings in Dark Souls with a melee class, everything Demon's Souls threw at me seemed to pale in comparison. That's not to say I loved it any less though; I platinum'd that sucker.

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Daniel Sims
July 05, 2012

Sounds to me like you've been conditioned by current gen games that make sure you always know exactly where to go and what button to press. Used to be games actually asked you to use your brain, which is what Demon's Souls is doing. That's really the only major thing that separates Demon's Souls from other games.

Even if I die a bunch of times at a particular part, usually with each death I'll learn something about that enemy or situation, and eventually figure out a strategy for getting past it, at which point I'll feel a genuine sense of accomplishment. Not because I banged my head against a problem until a solution came out, but because I thought my way through it.

I'll give you a tip though: all five of the game's main areas are accessible from the beginning, and in terms of enemy strength they are roughly the same. If you're having trouble in one area, try one of the other areas. Instead of trying to go from 1-1 through 1-4 at the beginning, you should follow up 1-1, with 2-1, then 3-1, then 4-1, then 5-1, then 1-2, then 2-2, and so-on.

Robsavillo
Rob Savillo
July 09, 2012

If you listen carefully to dialogue, Demon's Souls actually gives away pretty much everything in the game (aside from world tendency events, but I gather that those are meant to be surprises). And even in the event that no character drops a cryptic hint, another player likely will with an in-game message. Look out for those, too!

It's one of the reasons I really like the Souls games' approach to dialogue: It's all short, to the point, and likely holds a subtle clue about how to proceed. None of that long-winded, nonsensical, irrelevant garabage lore that we are commonly subjected to in most popular Western RPGs.

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