In what has become an annual tradition, I played another of From’s games for the first time. Demon’s Souls is slightly less refined than later instalments, but all the important factors are intact, making for a satisfying time.
Dark Souls was the title that really got From into the limelight, but just before that was the PS3 exclusive Demon’s Souls, still quite a success in its own right. It’s 80% the same game, a dark fantasy action-RPG with a steep difficulty curve and precise combat.
My experiences with Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne definitely coloured how I approached DeS. I couldn’t help making comparisons as I played through; eg. World 3-1 is a quite Bloodborne-esque location, and the consumable health recovery system is similar. Otherwise the setting is Dark Souls-like, just a bit more straightforward—both in terms of the plot and the game’s structure.
Of course, there’s still plenty of ambiguity, environmental storytelling, and personal choice. And although it’s more linear than the interconnected worlds you see later, the actual experience of playing through these areas feels the same and they twist and turn plenty within themselves.
I found my memory served me well, and I felt confident now with the gradual progression, careful combat, and thorough exploration. I had some grumbles with mechanics that had been rightly excised from subsequent games (the unnecessary item-weight-burden system, for example) or were poorly explained (everything related to world tendency), not to mention the distribution of health items throughout the game. Some of these I alleviated by abusing a very simple item duplication glitch, reasoning that I only used it to counteract what I saw as unfair imbalances in the game mechanics. Don’t judge me!
I certainly had a breezier time with this than my first agonising, slow Dark Souls run. That’s not to say I didn’t die. A lot. But that’s the whole point, and I found the same satisfaction by improving and customising my character and conquering the game’s challenges. And of course there’s some wonderfully intimidating and grotesque monsters and bosses, deep lore, and impressive setpieces in the level design. For example, the final boss in each area was a gimmick/puzzle fight, which made for a nice change of pace. So don’t miss Demon’s Souls, the hot game of 10 years ago… but read some guides first.
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