Demon's Souls Retrospective | The Souls Progenitor
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- Folks, it's Demon’s Souls: the Souls Progenitor: the game that started it all, influencing every subsequent game in the series with its groundbreaking ideas, mechanics, and motifs. Hope ya enjoy my thoughts, analysis, and critiques.
00:00 - Intro
05:07 - Story Intro
10:50 - Character Creation/World Design
13:00 - Boletaria 1-1/Phalanx
22:00 - The Nexus/Healing Grass Discussion
26:57 - Boletaria 1-2/Tower Knight
31:10 - Boletaria 1-3/Penetrator
34:57 - Stonefang Tunnel 2-1/Armour Spider
41:28 - Stonefang Tunnel 2-2/Flamelurker
44:25 - Weapon Upgrading
48:03 - Stonefang Tunnel 2-3/Dragon God
49:50 - Tower of Latria 3-1/Fool's Idol
55:54 - Tower of Latria 3-2/Maneaters
01:01:45 - Tower of Latria 3-3/Old Monk
01:02:47 - World Tendency Discussion
01:11:08 - Shrine of Storms 4-1/Adjudicator
01:15:09 - Shrine of Storms 4-2/Old Hero
01:18:15 - Shrine of Storms 4-3/Storm King
01:19:24 - Valley of Defilement 5-1/Leechmonger
01:22:47 - Valley of Defilement 5-2/Dirty Colossus
01:27:19 - Valley of Defilement 5-3/Maiden Astraea
01:31:29 - Boletaria 1-4/Old King Doran/Old King Allant
01:36:49 - The Old One/Ending
01:41:17 - Conclusion - Hry
Old king allant sitting on his throne watching over the kingdom then standing up and his cape falling off is so raw 🔥🔥
Started playing the OG version a few days ago. Already fell in love. Masterpiece of a game.
Did you play it with the private server? Or offline. If offline, is it still fun without the ghosts and messages?
@@LadyOfTheEdits Im on public server. Playing on PC with RPCS3 and a PS3 controller. Plenty of msgs and some players around I see.
@@swordlion294 aww I thought maybe on PS3 console. Unless it would work the same way?
@@swordlion294 Getting Demon Souls when I get paid
And yet another retrospective, massive thank you for your hard work and for the many hours of entertainment.
Aw man, thank you so much for your support again! Can't thank ya enough for your kind words and the donation, really appreciate it m8.
@@candletype1a447 It's my pleasure my friend, hoping to help so you can provide us with more content in the future, you have a bright path in front of you, don't let anyone tell you otherwise :)! Have a beautiful day!
@@candletype1a447😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
He's back at it again. Favorite CZcamsr of 2023. Videos of this length and caliber are perfect.
Just started playing the remake, such excellent timing!
Discovering a mysterious world rich with lore and slowly piecing things together, to me it’s one of the most important aspects of Souls game. I think it’s what truly sets Souls games apart. The world and the game design is perfect for visual story telling, with a few breadcrumbs of lore. Add the best combat in the industry and you have some of the best games ever made.
Despite Demon’s Souls being the first and probably most limited, I can’t help thinking of it as my favourite in the series. I only wish there was a port of the original included with the remake
Remakes Better
@@based-ys9umit's not you have bad taste
@@thebuddah1253 you don't have a ps5
@@based-ys9um yes I do. And I was dissapointed by the change in art style. Flame lurker and vanguard look like doom monsters now.
The original game can be streamed on the PS5 if you have a PS Plus sub. Not sure how good streaming is, could be shit, but worth a look if you'd like.
Damn he's done it again. Incredible quality as usual
I thought I blocked you!
Back when the original demon's souls came out, they were selling it at a local record store, and i would look at the case every time i was there waiting for my boyfriend to buy a record lol. Eventually, after looking at it over 50 times, i decided to buy it and it very quickly became one of my all time favorite games. I was so pumped when they announced the remake.
One note about the fools idol boss: you can also easily tell which one is the real her when she creates the copies by looking at the magic they cast at you. The real idol will fire larger beams of magic than the copies do
What's interesting is that the crystal sage boss in DS3 also has the copies of the boss use a different color than the original
Keep it up man! The turnaround period on these videos is incredible! Love listening to them at work!
I remember getting demons souls the year it came out for Christmas. I knew when I first played it, that it had greatness within.
1:13:48 I’m pretty sure 4-1 has a shortcut, though it is unintended. You can roll over the wall at the beginning and skip like half the level.
Yep, I use it every time lol. Straight to Adjudicator
Fools idol you can also tell them apart by their magic colour. The real ones soul arrow is a slightly different blue 🤘
Commenting so it gets more attention from the algorithm!
I get why everyone talks about beating Vinland and having Astrea give you the Demons soul, but the visual of going to kill Astrea and Garl Vinland hanging his head in defeat was powerful to me
I usually leave him alive cause I like taking photoshoots next to him in his depression.
How the f you are able to post in such short amount of time is stuning for me. Cheers❤
its ok man we have all been touched by a souls game here :)
Ahhhh my very first souls game, I still remember taking HOURS just to beat 1-1
love the mssp shoutout lmao
I loved the "if you know what I mean hehe" segment.
Excellent video, I actually can't believe how few subscribers you have! I'll still be here when you hit 1M.
As a veteran KC fan, on Elephant Talk you conquered me, and I couldn't help but subscribe!
I prefer the ps3 graphics. I don't know how to explain it. It just feel right. The atmosphere, ambience, design (especially the fat officials), etc.
Tbh, same here! I woulda used the original game for footage but I sold my PS3 and games around a year ago.
Man, how can you produce these excellent videos so quickly? keep it up :)
Bolteria palace is the first level in soulsborne history and u can argue it has the most atmosphere out of any area in the games. The barracks, the Grey dying castle, the bridges, even inside the castle rooms having tables and breads, the dragons etc
It just perfectly captures the feel soulsborne is supposed to give off imo
I'm hearing it while at work, I love your sense of humor sprinkled here and there. Subscribed mate c:
World Tendency isn't for everyone but I enjoyed it.
It's bad for completionists and can be annoying if you're actively trying to manipulate it. I think it works best when you don't know how it works and you start experiencing new content on NG+. That's how it was for me. I remember finding Scirvir and Satsuki for the first time and being so excited but confused as to why they appeared. Finding a new ladder in 5-1 and wondering "was this always here?" then picking up a new legendary weapon also kicked ass. To this day I have a "what if" feeling that I'll find something new even though that's pretty much impossible when the game has been datamined for years.
Just thought it was a neat idea that players could have such a different experience from each other based on some obscure mechanic.
Love these videos 😩
My first and still favorite Souls experience, look forward to watching.
Love your channel man ❤
Found your channel the other day, have watched all your Souls videos. Love your content, and I wish I could love Demon's Souls but it's very much the first of its kind in all the worst ways.
This was the one that kicked it all off for me. I remember getting it shortly before Halloween and being so confused by the message saying there would be black world tendency because of Halloween. Even though I had no idea what that meant, I still thought it was cool they were doing something for Halloween.
If you’re a souls fan, pick this up. It may not play like recent souls games, but the boss and level designs are something to behold by any souls fan.
Awesome. I'll be watching all of these. Just found your channel.
This channel is poised to explode, you love to see it.
Great commentary, bruv. I was happy to see this, as Demon's has always been a special game for me.
The Primeval Demons, aka Colorless, actually do have an attack...it's a slow, lunging bite that does little damage.
- subbed✌
Ah wow, had no idea they had an attack! Cheers m8!
was NOT expecting a king crimson reference in this of all videos
Ah man i had demon souls pre-ordered for like a year before release. I was so excited for it
I remember I had my PlayStation hooked up to my soundbar in my room the first time I went into Upper Latria. My subwoofer was on the other side of the room but still connected, and the heartbeat was coming through there. It took me so long to figure out what that sound was and where it was coming from, because the subwoofer was behind me but the speaker was in front and the beat wasn’t coming out of the speaker. One of the most unsettling experiences I’ve ever had playing a game, made even more creepy once I realized that the sound was the gigantic beating heart in the middle of the tower!
another great video, love it! i also found your comment from the beginning about dark souls being “old” to an elden ring fan to be sadly true. elden ring was the first souls game i finished (i had tried ds3, beaten gundyr, and didn’t like it much. then my apartment got burglarized and for some reason it was the only thing they took besides my roommate’s credit card.) and i went and played through dark souls 1 afterward. it was rough, honestly. the game felt much older than it actually is, and while i loved its world and atmosphere, the gameplay never clicked for me. it really did feel so old and unpolished. the bosses also felt remarkably easy, with too many that could be beaten by what felt like simply mashing the attack button. maybe i’m just used to the blatant sadism that’s on display in ER. the ironic flip side to this is that i played dark souls 3 afterward and honestly found that it feels MORE tight and polished than elden ring, rather than seeming old. honestly, it made me feel as though elden ring had somewhat prioritized quantity over quality with its content. it’s an odd dynamic, i still adore elden ring and play it the most of any souls game but i find it hard to say i consider it to be a better overall game than ds3. despite ds3 holding up remarkably, ds1 has definitely aged like milk from the perspective of a new fan, though. still love all of these games, that comment just stuck with me as someone who only got into souls games a few months ago.
Well I think it's only fair that I drop this here letting you know that you have earned my respect for the hard work as well as my subscription for being a fellow member of our awesome Souls community. I found your bloodborne retrospective and at this point I have finished the whole of Dark Souls, save demon souls for last since I don't have a PlayStation to play this beautiful looking remake. Cheers for all the hard work
Thank you so much for saying that and I'm real glad to have you as a sub!
About the multiple copies of the weapons there is a lore reason for it. The weapons are once for the demons that gave life to the legends of the knights (Alfred, Metas and Oolan) and the other is for their red phantoms. Its just that you can find Oolan's white bow in the shrine instead of Boletaria because she was originally from there. The rings are like this because Allant made them a commodity so it was easy to find some of the least rare ones. There are two rings of Herculean strength though because one was for Biorr and the other for Vallorfax of the twin fangs.
The remake was a great game, but I did feel like alot more could have been done to make the game even better. For example: 6th archstone, improved AI, new movesets to enemies/bosses (Penetrator should have a much wider range of moves for instance), new weapons/armours (well there were the deluxe exclusives i guess), improved PvP mechanics and even covenants.
I did have disapointment when progressing through the game and finding out these features weren't improved/added, reason being I didn't want it to be a Dark Souls Remastered situation again. After all, this was the version exclusive and one of the launch titles of the PS5 and I wanted the qualities of DS3 and bloodborne to be added to the older games.
That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game, as I am with this retrospective. Thanks.
Demon's Souls will always be my favorite Souls game. Even when From's games keep getting bigger and better, I keep coming back to this one. I love all of its whacky design choices, I love how straight forward and grounded the levels are, I honestly like how easy it is, I love the OST, NPCs, the simple story, etc.
You can sense the developer's creative freedom in this game. It's a new IP, its already considered a failure before release, so let's do whatever we want with it. All of Demon's Souls esoteric qualities and inconveniences are there because the developers wanted it to be. That feeling can be felt in all their Souls games but it's definitely strongest in Demon's.
Loved the little Berserk ad halfway through the video lmao
If you want an overpowered weapon, you should definitely check out the Blueblood sword. It's insanely good, being the only weapon I know that already has magic damage but can also be buffed by items.
"I hate the dogs in Demon's souls."
Literally everyone who's ever played a Souls game: "Same."
Big tip for that pure bladestone - farm the red eye skeleton up stairs just before Adjudicator. Sneak from behind, back stab, rinse & repeat. Took me 15-20 minutes (wanted one to trade Sparkly & I think about 50 kills).
Great retrospective on the overlooked progenitor!
Though I have something to mention; Old King Allant's giant AOE attack isn't just meant to be run away from. You're meant to interrupt it by attacking him, just like how you can interrupt Artorias' buffing AOE if you broke his poise quickly enough, though Allant usually staggers in a single hit, even with smaller weapons.
While this removes waiting though, the fact that he can use it many times in a row is a bit of a shame, since you get so many free hits.
Have to admit, I had no idea that attack could be interrupted. Cheers for the info!
I missed demon souls because I really just started getting into video games about last year, but since then I now own & have played every “soulsborne” Game there is, many multiple times each, I love every single one of them. I’ve become such a fan of from software games that I can even going to buy and try to get into playing armored core when it comes out. I am Almost certain I will end up liking it just because they have made it but if I’m wrong I don’t care I like to get outside my comfort zone and play games. I’m not used to sometimes also so just for that experience it will be cool.
1:35:42 well, perhaps running into him and attacking head on is a bad idea because of his quick attacks, but you can stagger him out of that AOE before it happens, hittem in the back and he'll get staggered and will dash away to reset.
I agree it's a bit too easy for him to get stuck doing that attack over and over, but it's a punishable moment, not a "you must run away and wait for the AOE or yer dedski" kinda thing, like Quelaags explosion is. 😎
I'll forever be a Demon's Souls OG PS3 vet that reminds everyone that Demon's Souls did it first.
No marketing, left to die by Sony, the only thing that saved the Souls genre was literally Word of Mouth and Atlus.
Demon's Souls blew up and started an entire genre.
I firmly believe Astrea to be pure. She's falling into the martyr mentality and is absorbing the evilness. Afterall, power doesn't make you evil, it's what you do with it and even though she is the most corrupted, she is able to resist it. I don't believe that she knows the full effects of the old one and how it's plaguing the world. Also she didn't really betray anyone considering the God her order follows, the one that gives them miracles and healing powers is the Old One. That's the true irony of Demon's Souls.
I’m on my first playthrough of Demon’s Souls Remake now. Never played the original, but I dig the atmosphere in this game though I’ve heard it’s been downgraded. It’s a great game but I question the obfuscation of some of its mechanics and its “gimmicky” bosses.
This is great work. I’ve watched all your Soulsborne retrospectives and enjoy them all. Sad to see you’ve fallen out of love with DaS 2 but that can happen. Big Ups! Looking forward to your future work.
It hasn't been downgraded. People who say that don't have a ps5
@@based-ys9um To me the game is gorgeous. I’ve heard criticism of the atmosphere in general (compared to the PS3 DeS) and some design choices, like the Fat Official and changes to the architecture in Boletaria.
It seems to me that if you played demons souls first, it's your favorite. Pretty much every notable feature was done better in a later game, and it's maybe a little hard to appreciate how incredible the ideas were at the time. I feel like our first souls experience becomes the benchmark for the others.
I get that BluePoint wanted to make the remake as real and modern as possible…but that came at the cost of them completely removing the art style that was purposely intended. I just finished the new one and I really loved it and now I kind of miss it. I wish they would’ve just kept the same tone the Original had but just upgrade the graphics. No need to completely replace how the OG looked. That’s what made people love it in the first place man
I remember my first playthrough of this game a few years ago. It kicked my ass numerous times despite having already played the other titles for hundreds of hours. I wish I could play this back when it first came out. Also, with the PS5 being scarce and me being always broke I hope to one day play the remake. Lastly, I regard Bloodborne & Sekiro as From Software's best soulsbornes game though Demon Souls is easily best of the souls' titles. As far why the name changes for sticky white stuff to sticky if you think about it you will understand why they changed the name though slime is not better.
King Allants AOE attack you run into the tornado 🌪 and break it...I think it's quite a rush even if the character spams it
15:50 have you considered the devs may have intentionally done that to show you there's a pit there and that the enemy is "gone" after they fall, meaning you shouldn't go there. Like a tutorial on falling to your death.
I'm open to the possibility, but considering the rather questionable AI found in many parts of the game, particularly on bosses, I'd be more inclined to attribute it to jank than developer intention!
Btw, I used to listen to you all the time many years ago on the NLSS. Feels weird to have you watching my vid haha.
Fascinating stuff. Your vids are incredible--be sure to take care of yourself since I imagine it can be a slog to make em
Cheers very much m8!
Yeah, haha, it is a lot of work to make them, but it's also enjoyable in its own way, especially once a project is done and dusted and the finished product is out there. The next phase of the channel is gonna be a challenge though now that I'm outta Soulsborne stuff, so we'll see what happens from here lol.
Nice!! I'm looking forward to it@@candletype1a447
47:23 You *can* upgrade boss weapons, with Colorless Demon Souls, a resource which, admittedly, requires a near-platinum level playthru of the full world tendency events of a level, getting to dark tendency and spawning Primeval demons, something that is also far easier in NG+. So many players will completely miss this on a blind-ish playthru...
(you clarify later in the video with WT talks)
Full Disclosure: I have not finished playing the remake, but as far as I can tell, the Digital Deluxe and Preorder exclusive weapons *are* completely un-upgradable.
The Scythe is essentially locked as a +1 Partizan and the Cleaver, like a Great Axe. Both have only slightly better damage than their normal, un-upgraded counterpart, after playing thru one or two levels of the game, the weapons become utterly useless once you find any shards.
One part of World Tendency I do think they did right was how, for example, Satsuki appears in the Shrine level at full light tendency, tells you about the Makoto which is a shiny in-level not grabbable at first, but then is now attainable. Should you get a lil cheeky and kill Satsuki before grabbing the sword, upon any reloading of this level the item is again unattainable. 👍
One minor remake gripe is that they kept literally every line of busted coding from the original game, like randomly rolling when the player breathes somewhere near the circle button, yet were somehow attentive enough to fix the item dupe Nexial binding glitch. 😅
Nah m8, you can't upgrade boss weapons. You can upgrade special weapons like the White Bow, Hiltless, Large Sword of Moonlight, etc with a Colourless Demon Soul, but not the boss weapons that you transmute from regular weapons like the Dozer Axe, Lava Bow, Large Sword of Searching, etc. You CAN upgrade the Penetrating Sword which is of course used by the Penetrator boss, but bear in mind that you don't actually transmute the Penetrating sword, you just find it in 1-3 or as a drop in 1-4.
Using firestorm to kill phalanx on new game+ is one of the most satisfying experiences I had in the game
Part of the reason i haven't yet played it is Cex pricing 2009 Demon's Souls at £20 during the hype train leading to Elden Ring, they know what they're doing.
Most games from 2009 are a couple of quid, some 50p.
And after seeing the remake i want that to be my first experience of it.
Honestly, Demon's Souls for £20 really ain't too bad for PS3, though looks like you can snag a copy for around £15 on eBay. CEX stores tend to be a bit shite in general with their prices though.
You can attack Old King Allant during his AOE charge and stopping it
Great work mate, refresher to hear a Scottish CZcamsr with an actual normal Scottish accent 😂
lmao, I know m8, they've all got those posh uni accents!
Being that this is the originator to Soulsborne we all recognize, Bluepoint wanted to show reverence to the original and leave EVERYTHING as it was. glitches and all. Positive and negative. I’m just surprised they never offered a “remix” (other than the flip) to have improved AI and remove shortcuts and glitches.
I played the original Demon's Souls and never touched the others, I did start the remake, but I'm not interested in doing all of the work that I put in on the original again.
Thank goodness that trophies came out before then, and I still have my PS3 and saves, so I'm not that pressed to replay it.
I’ll never get over them not bringing along the ps3 song/ theme list
I kinda loved offing myself in the Nexus.
I found the original PS3 version at GameStop the other day. I don’t have a PS3 but I grabbed it up anyway. I have the remake but I want to get a PS3 so I can play the original.
Off topic, I think the old one is the erdtree from elden ring. I'll elaborate if anybody wants it
For 2009 the graphics were great
i imported demon souls from the US, so i actually started with the OG
When it comes to facial animations I gotta somewhat disagree. I think they're more hit or miss. With some looking odd (crestfallen warrior) and some looking pretty good (ed and boldwyn). Patches looks perfect IMO. The creepiness adds a lot to it.
Do the 3 kingsfield games next 😎
There’s 4!!!
@yurinoyharnam I looked it up and technically there's 8? Good lord someone needs to do a video essay on these!
I know just the guy...@@rutherfordmoment
Why did you have no upgraded weapons in 2-2? Just putting some of the materials you get into one weapon makes you way stronger than focusing on they are weak to
I could be tripping tho it just seems like you’re doing way less damage then I remember doing
@@Indravun I decided to try rocking the Great Club for a while thanks to its great strength scaling, but unfortunately it can't actually be upgraded and so my damage wasn't great; it did have great knockback though.
Thanks for replying, your end game great sword looked absolutely busted just spam cross slashing, not trying to throw shade I was just curious. Totally off topic but you should try remnant 2 it’s pretty great
If only I had a PS3/5
PCSX3.
Bro, you can emulate demons souls on PC pretty well nowadays. You don't need a PS3.
I'm fixing to buy a PS3 solely for the purpose of playing this game. Also, my god, i wish they'd bring it to PC.
You can always emulate it
Enjoy the CZcams premium £££.
PLEASE HELP ME! ARGHHHHHH
the valley of defilement is for........ 😂😂😂
Better lore than dark souls series. Not as good as bloodborne though. How much you like the sekiro story/lore is very subjective.
No one is putting out the quality you are. You’re the under the mayo of souls, blood, and all things 3rd person action rpg
I‘m only gonna dro a like if you say I‘m serious!
Overweight official?? They are called Fat Officials
Sad how much better this game looks compared to elden ring.
Original better than remake but 🤷♂️
This remake is simply put, a cash grab, since sony tried to show off the ps3 version and failed, they thought they could do it again, and while the game looks great, that was obviously the main focus, making it look amazing to show off the graphic capabilities of the ps5, and 4 years later, as I play it sometimes, the load times aren't as fast, telling me that even only after 4 years of the console's release, it's starting to decline somewhat, that worries me about advancing technology, it just seems like since it's cheaper to make in other countries rather than where they originally came from, the quality downgrades. Overall, I like Demon's Souls Remake, since I never played the original in 2009 since at the time I was a cod boy. I am so glad I found the souls series.
This is not a DemonsSouls retrospective. This is some weird cancerous growth of DemonsSouls retrospective. Use the original and better version.
I can understand some of the gripes you guys have with a remake
But calling it a "cancerous growth" makes you look like some old fart who just wanted his precious PS3 game to stay on the ancient concole so noone can play it
This is not a constructive comment. This is some weird cancerous growth of constructive criticism.
Prefer the original also, btw
@@Amandor2011 Literally no one would be opposed to a faithful remake. This is not a faithful remake. This is a new game disguised as a remake. Hell, BP are on record saying they wanted to do the remake with *their* vision.
Your false assumption isn't helping.
@@clemenscohn737195% of the game is identical to PS3 in terms of enemies, story, layout, items etc. I don’t understand why you would dislike this if you love the original?😊
@@SilentAssassin01234 McDonalds went from a colourful kids center to a boring black and brown adult center.
It's not about the gameplay.
I look down on reviewers who started anywhere but Demon's Souls. Even more so when they didn't play at launch. You missed IT, and you will never be able to experience IT.
What is IT? The birth of a genre. You weren't there, so playing Demon's after the others means your experience is tainted.
I wish I could be as cool as you!