Coming back to this game and getting it feel so rewarding. I tried a few months ago and put it down around 4-1 due to it feeling too unforgiving and frustrating, with not enough moments of satisfaction afterwards, but even then I knew there was something special about this game. Now, I'll admit that it is a near impossibility to not relate this game to the members of the lineage that it spawned, especially with this being the last one I played in said series, but it really is mind-blowing just how much right they got from the start.
I've made it no secret that Dark Souls 1 is by far my favorite entry in the Soulsborne collective, and I made the foolish-in-hindsight error of praising it for concepts like bloodstains, messages, summoning, etc. while never acknowledging that this game did it first. I knew it did, but I wanted to believe that "oh, this is some archaic version of the TRUE VISION that is DS1"; I could not be more incorrect. While it is true that the later games in the series did polish up a lot of various aspects, the core gameplay and soul (no pun intended) of the series was exquisitely laid out here. Infinite retries, big boss battles, XP currency, the multiplayer aspects, all of that started from this. I know I'm repeating myself a lot, but it is genuinely unbelievable that so many unique and now iconic mechanics in video games were done perfect in the first attempt. But enough waxing poetic about its history, how does it hold up on its own?
Demon's Souls takes an incredibly interesting and subversive look at the concepts of "levels", with everything feeling simultaneously extremely segmented yet also open and fluid. The five worlds you're given are all wildly different from each other, some experimenting in verticality, some experimenting with status effects and different elemental damage, each one having not a gimmick but rather a theme that makes them all super memorable and unique. As an aside, it's also really cool to see the flickering wisps of level design ideas that would go on to be recreated in later games. The individual segments within the worlds also switch things up between each one, with the layout of said levels being absolutely superb. The leanest cut of meat possible; every walkway, every set of stairs, every top and bottom of every single room is crafted with the express intent of "the player will go here for a reason", there is positively zero wasted space. The use of shortcuts, while regrettably a little sparse, also makes thorough searching and emptying of every level that much more rewarding, for you may be able to save yourself some extreme repetition should you fail at the boss. Speaking of bosses...
It seems as though the biggest turn-off for this game for a great many amount of people, specifically Souls fans, are the bosses being "underwhelming". Well, yes, but it feels a bit unfair to say that considering this was the first attempt at doing boss fights in this style, especially before the shift away from having the runback to the boss be part of the challenge. Now, I'll admit that I do prefer the quality bosses we got later on after the reduction of said runbacks, but that doesn't mean these are "bad", they just strike a different tone. It's a comparison many people have made, but they feel more like the puzzle bosses of Zelda games, except here they serve a slightly different purpose. Here, they're checkpoints, the things preventing you from seeing the rest of the world you're in, and that factor alone gives you the motivation to beat them. I wanted to see the rest of the Tower of Latria, which made me all the more determined to beat Fool's Idol, despite the demoralizing taste of failure and remembering the required runback. But, seeing what awaited me made it totally worth it, which retroactively adds to the challenge and satisfaction of beating these bosses.
I've held off on talking about this, since it's so subjective, but good lord is this game beautiful. Sure, maybe not in the "traditional" sense (ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵉᵐᵃᵏᵉ ˢᵗᵘᶜᵏ ᵗᵒᵒ ᶜˡᵒˢᵉ ᵗᵒ), but it has a wistful, half-forgotten feeling to the art style, like a canvas that's been hung up in a gallery for a long, long time. It's faded and worn, but in a way, that adds to its melancholy. The architecture feels like a perfect blend of the familiar medieval and the dream-like uncanny, often stepping between the two at a moment's notice, which adds so much to the thick, foggy atmosphere that completely blankets this game. That atmosphere alone is what really sets this game apart from the rest, not just the (rather overstated) Soul Tendency system or the Archstones; I've made the "playing a painting" comparison to Dark Souls 1 many times, but I feel like this game might encapsulate that feeling better. Seeing 3-2 made me feel like I was seeing something that's never been done before or since in video games.
Not much else I can say. The main thing holding this back for me is just the clunk being a bit too much for me to want to come back to as often as I do the other games, and builds being much more strict, but I think that aspect adds to the weight of your adventure and purpose in the game's world. Though, I can not stress enough, even if I think other games provide this gameplay style in a more refined and replayable way, this game has a feeling to it that none of the others come close to; a feeling strong enough that it outweighs nearly all the negative feelings I have towards certain parts. A very special game made by a team of very special people.
I've made it no secret that Dark Souls 1 is by far my favorite entry in the Soulsborne collective, and I made the foolish-in-hindsight error of praising it for concepts like bloodstains, messages, summoning, etc. while never acknowledging that this game did it first. I knew it did, but I wanted to believe that "oh, this is some archaic version of the TRUE VISION that is DS1"; I could not be more incorrect. While it is true that the later games in the series did polish up a lot of various aspects, the core gameplay and soul (no pun intended) of the series was exquisitely laid out here. Infinite retries, big boss battles, XP currency, the multiplayer aspects, all of that started from this. I know I'm repeating myself a lot, but it is genuinely unbelievable that so many unique and now iconic mechanics in video games were done perfect in the first attempt. But enough waxing poetic about its history, how does it hold up on its own?
Demon's Souls takes an incredibly interesting and subversive look at the concepts of "levels", with everything feeling simultaneously extremely segmented yet also open and fluid. The five worlds you're given are all wildly different from each other, some experimenting in verticality, some experimenting with status effects and different elemental damage, each one having not a gimmick but rather a theme that makes them all super memorable and unique. As an aside, it's also really cool to see the flickering wisps of level design ideas that would go on to be recreated in later games. The individual segments within the worlds also switch things up between each one, with the layout of said levels being absolutely superb. The leanest cut of meat possible; every walkway, every set of stairs, every top and bottom of every single room is crafted with the express intent of "the player will go here for a reason", there is positively zero wasted space. The use of shortcuts, while regrettably a little sparse, also makes thorough searching and emptying of every level that much more rewarding, for you may be able to save yourself some extreme repetition should you fail at the boss. Speaking of bosses...
It seems as though the biggest turn-off for this game for a great many amount of people, specifically Souls fans, are the bosses being "underwhelming". Well, yes, but it feels a bit unfair to say that considering this was the first attempt at doing boss fights in this style, especially before the shift away from having the runback to the boss be part of the challenge. Now, I'll admit that I do prefer the quality bosses we got later on after the reduction of said runbacks, but that doesn't mean these are "bad", they just strike a different tone. It's a comparison many people have made, but they feel more like the puzzle bosses of Zelda games, except here they serve a slightly different purpose. Here, they're checkpoints, the things preventing you from seeing the rest of the world you're in, and that factor alone gives you the motivation to beat them. I wanted to see the rest of the Tower of Latria, which made me all the more determined to beat Fool's Idol, despite the demoralizing taste of failure and remembering the required runback. But, seeing what awaited me made it totally worth it, which retroactively adds to the challenge and satisfaction of beating these bosses.
I've held off on talking about this, since it's so subjective, but good lord is this game beautiful. Sure, maybe not in the "traditional" sense (ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵉᵐᵃᵏᵉ ˢᵗᵘᶜᵏ ᵗᵒᵒ ᶜˡᵒˢᵉ ᵗᵒ), but it has a wistful, half-forgotten feeling to the art style, like a canvas that's been hung up in a gallery for a long, long time. It's faded and worn, but in a way, that adds to its melancholy. The architecture feels like a perfect blend of the familiar medieval and the dream-like uncanny, often stepping between the two at a moment's notice, which adds so much to the thick, foggy atmosphere that completely blankets this game. That atmosphere alone is what really sets this game apart from the rest, not just the (rather overstated) Soul Tendency system or the Archstones; I've made the "playing a painting" comparison to Dark Souls 1 many times, but I feel like this game might encapsulate that feeling better. Seeing 3-2 made me feel like I was seeing something that's never been done before or since in video games.
Not much else I can say. The main thing holding this back for me is just the clunk being a bit too much for me to want to come back to as often as I do the other games, and builds being much more strict, but I think that aspect adds to the weight of your adventure and purpose in the game's world. Though, I can not stress enough, even if I think other games provide this gameplay style in a more refined and replayable way, this game has a feeling to it that none of the others come close to; a feeling strong enough that it outweighs nearly all the negative feelings I have towards certain parts. A very special game made by a team of very special people.