Comment on Enjoying a Demon Souls playthrough.
Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 1 week agoDemon’s Souls (emphasis on the “‘s”) was, believe it or not, actually made to be enjoyed! The initial raving about it being difficult and sadistic came from an audience who just didn’t yet understand the genre it spawned.
zikzak025@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Just to provide some personal insight for anyone curious, it was easier than Dark Souls when I first played it on PS3 (years later).
A couple levels are a bit labyrinthine (the early part of Latria, the deeper parts of the mines) but the game was surprisingly a lot more linear and shorter than I’d expected.
Dodging was slightly more difficult than in Dark Souls, but having been used to it after all these years and getting a sense of what boss movements to read, I never really struggled with most of the bosses. I think they didn’t design them with the idea that people would be dodging mechanics as much as blocking, so anyone who is used to dodge rolling and knows to stay under fat rolling territory will have an easier time.
I think the only esoteric aspect of the game that was never really explained well is world tendency and character tendency. Similar in some regards to Dark Souls, the smart way to play is to be in spirit form the majority of the time (equivalent to being Hollow in Dark Souls). Partly because the items needed to become human are in short supply, so you can’t always rely on them, but also because dying as a human in Demon’s Souls darkens the world tendency, and the only way to make it lighter is to kill bosses and certain unique enemies (which are in short supply). And certain things are only available when the world is fully light or fully dark, so you really have to be deliberate about how you affect the world tendency if you want to unlock everything.
Oh and run backs are killer, by design. Bosses are significantly easier but there will never be an archstone (bonfire) anywhere between the previous boss you killed and the next boss.