Introduction
Today we are going to look at a PlayStation 5 game! It is time to go hunting for demon’s! Their soul will be ours. What is this game all about? Yes, it is a difficult game, and you will die, but how hard is it really? What can you expect from this game? Except from the words, you died over and over again?
What did I think before playing Demon's Souls?
This was a game that I wanted to play for a long time, but it is a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Thus, we had to sell quite some games and trade in items we did not have to make this review come true. I only knew this was a souls-like game. I was ready for the challenge, but for more information, I decided to check out the PlayStation page.
The PlayStation page
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/demons-souls/
It seems we are in for a treat in the lost lands of Boletaria. It is your job to fight the demons inside the fog that is driving people insane. The story is kind of vague, but the gameplay should be familiar. Finally, I am going to play this game, I am very excited!
Rating
I rated Demon’s Souls with an 8.2 before playing.
Finally, I would be able to play the game that eluded me on the PlayStation 3.
Story
The story is rather strange, a king has awoken the old demon, and it is going to absorb everyone’s soul unless you somehow stop it.
Rating
I rate the story of Demon’s Souls with a 7.1
While I did like the story, most of it can be found in item texts. And even then, just as with other games, you can keep speculating.
Gameplay
The gameplay is quite forward. Fight your enemies and don’t die. There are many ways to engage your enemies. Either with magic, ranged, or melee. And even all those have sub categories. The best way with melee is just to circle your enemies and stab them in the back. Not only does this do massive damage, it will also stun them.
You will need to grow stronger by consuming souls. Yummy, I know! But you can only level up once you have defeated the first boss, called the Phalanx. Don’t worry, a lot of bosses are pushovers once you know their weakness. The first boss is weak to fire.
Once you have defeated the Phalanx, you will notice you can choose what world you will explore first. Each world will give you different items or experience points. It all depends on your build which world you should visit first, but there are some problems you will face which ruined the game for me.
If you die in your human form, you will become a phantom. This means you will have your max health halved. But, if you die in your human form, the world you are exploring gets harder, and it will become impossible to get certain loot. This means you have to go through the game nerfed, every time you win a boss fight, you get your human back form, but you will have to kill yourself. I would explain the whole black and white stuff in worlds, but is confusing as fuck.
Rating
I rated the gameplay of Demon’s Souls with a 6.0
While I did like the game at first, I soon realized what a clusterfuck of confusion this black and white world is. I had to start over, since I had died in all worlds as a human without knowing why the enemies kept becoming stronger.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are quite stunning, I also like the looks of the available armor sets. The fat roll was perfect, but I did see a perfectly missed opportunity. Demon’s Soul should have had six worlds, but one got scrapped. It would have been perfect if they added it in the remake.
Sound
The soundtrack are quite good. All the worlds have a different soundtrack and enemies that make strange sounds so you can hear them. This game does a good job of putting enemies around corners.
Rating
I rated the sound and graphics of Demon’s Souls with a 6.7
Huge detraction in points for a missed opportunity! The cutscenes were nice, though.
What did I think after playing Demon's Souls?
Despite all of the confusing mechanics, and not being able to complete all quest. Since I need to be evil and kill characters to get certain quests. I did have a fun time, but missing items because I die is such a lame excuse for a gameplay mechanic. Some of the bosses were pushovers, while others were overpowered. But most of them were easy to cheese.
Two bosses come to mind that I hated. One was a puzzle boss named the dragon god. You could only hit him with certain gimmicks. The other boss was the final boss. I was expecting a grand finale, instead, I got a slug who could barely move. It was very anticlimactic and only soured the pain I went through to get here.
Rating
I rated Demon’s Souls with a 5.7 after playing.
I think if they removed the utterly bullshit mechanics, added the sixth world, made a true final boss, this game could have been a ten. Now, I am kind of disappointed I played this game.
What are my personal thoughts about Demon's Souls?
I think it is quite clear from this review what I think about this game. I am utterly disappointed and glad this game is over. It is almost impossible to get your world back to light, but you need to make it dark to get to special areas. If it was easier to switch, then alright, but this was a sore pain in the ass.
Another big problem was that I only had one ring slot, since one ring upped your nerfed health, and another ring heals you slowly. Thus, I never had the chance to try other rings.
Rating
My personal Rating of Demon’s Souls is a 3.7
Disappointed!
Last Words
Pros
- There are five worlds to explore with distinct biomes
- The graphics are pretty nice
- Fun NPC'S to interact with and clear quests for, depending on world state and character state
- There are many ways to fight your enemies
Cons
- The sixth world is still missing
- You can never experiment with rings
- You always need to walk around in your nerfed form
- All normal enemies should be backstabbed
- There are many confusing gameplay mechanics
- The final boss is anticlimactic
- There are enemies and special armor that can be missed depending on your actions
While I have wanted to play this game for a long time, this game even being the reason my wife and I finally got the PlayStation 5, it left a sour taste in my mouth.
The Final Rating
6.7
Please let me know what you think of Demon’s Souls in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends.
I won’t be as critical as you. I think it’s a really good game, even if the difficulty often makes you rage. It paved the way for many other games.
It did pave the way and the difficulty was fine, it was just, utterly confusing to me. The gameplay mechanics did not click well together.
i hope it comes to steam at some point
I was not expecting that low rating review. Even though I haven’t played it myself, I hear great praises for this game but I guess it is only Sony fanboys and true Masochists would like this.
It is one of the easier Souls games since you can cheese almost every boss. The low rating stems mostly from the confusing garbage mechanics.
5-6 for me. Nothing exciting for me
The original Demon’s Souls avoided trends and didn’t care about sales. The remake does the complete opposite.
The remake should have added the new world, removed the strange confusing mechanics and allowed all quests and loot to be found. The mechanics require that you kill yourself after every successful boss fight.
A friend once challenged me to play, what he called “drunk souls” never played a souls game before. Long story short: we played Dark Souls 3 and you had to drink a shot every time you die. I was pretty wasted the next morning.
The review is nice and detailed. Like it
Man, these games are not to be played drunk!
You missed the key pro – unlimited ways to die. XD
Nah, most of my deaths were from miscalculating jumps and falling to my death…
Not the best…
Looks like this game is not as great as I thought. I’m thinking about buying a PS5 next year, so I was excited to try this game since it’s a PS5 exclusive. Maybe they’ll fix the mechanics and add a sixth world until then, who knows. Thanks for the review!
This game seems more flawed than I thought based on the positive reception this game had…
Still, I would like to try this game someday!
Just be aware of the strange mechanics before you start!