Haha, I was thinking of those skeletons, too.
I can think of several other places where I discovered multiple novel ways to fail (5-2, Maneater…) but those are mostly considered some of the harder sections of the game. In the general case, I agree.
Well to be fair the crushing is intentional, unavoidable and somewhat necessary to convey the idea that being in body form is different from being in spirit form. It’s also there to advance the story of the game.
Right, I actually didn’t word my post correctly. I meant to say “crushes you regardless of what you do in order to advance the game.”
I don’t actually mind that the original does that, especially to advance the game and separate the spirit and body forms, but it doesn’t give much insight to the player as it does this, it just crushes the living hell out of you. As players work their way through early stages of the game thinking “I wonder…” the game just responds WRONG and punches your junk.
Demon’s Souls dick punched me, and I liked it. I did ask it to remove its rings first next time.
I think this is all we’re really asking for.
I’ve been going through this recently with my brother:
"Ugh, I love the atmosphere, but Demon’s Souls is such bullshit!
“Why?”
“Because the death penalties are too steep!”
“Why?”
“Because I can easily die before I can recover my corpse!”
“Why is that a problem?”
“Because my corpse has my souls!”
“So?”
“I need those souls to level up!”
“Why?”
“Because I need to level up to beat the game!”
“What boss are you stuck on?”
“I’m not stuck! I need to level up because if I don’t, and I get stuck somewhere, I may not be able to recover my corpse!”
Then we basically restarted the loop. He’s currently at a higher soul level than me, has beaten less bosses, and has become so concerned about losing “progress” that he has started reading the wiki, which I think basically defeats the entire purpose of the game. He has also been complaining a lot about the unfairly low drop-rates of certain stones that he needs because they’ll let him get his special weapon to +5 instead of +4, which he needs because… Why?
It’s at the point where he may not have time to finish the game before hitting the road because he spent too much time grinding souls and stones. I’m sure in six months he’ll be saying how Demon’s Souls is pretty cool, but he couldn’t complete it because it was “too hardcore.” Except the only thing “hardcore” about it is his own approach to the game.
Demon’s Souls perfectly illustrates many of the problems in modern video games and modern video gamers.
The Demon’s Souls sequel having coop(actual coop, not the first one’s weird random thing) would make me go out and tell everyone I know who’s even remotely interested in games to BUY IT BUY IT NOW I DON’T CARE THAT IT’S NOT OUT YET JUST BUY IT.
Yeah, but you’re describing an epiphany that is anything but obvious given what most games have accustomed us to. You yourself quit the first time at 1-2 because the dragon gave you a hard time. It’s the very definition of a trivial obstacle with the benefit of hindsight, and to your credit you came back and got a lot out of the game. But given the right combination of circumstances any one such moment can be a game ender for a player (I’m sure I had a few such stumbling blocks I’ve conveniently forgotten), and it’s worth having a constructive attitude when you look at others having the same problem.
Demon’s Souls isn’t unfair or exceptionally difficult in the classic sense of the word, but to call people pansies for finding a boss difficult or whatever is stupid.
I mean, what the fuck.
Here’s a Q&A from the director:
I found this interesting:
SS: Death was a part of life in Demon’s Souls. But it required that you replay the entire level from scratch with enemies in identical locations. Will Dark Souls force players to restart levels? Will levels be less repetitious to replay?
HM: The main concept has not changed: You try something, die, learn from your mistakes, and eventually overcome those mistakes. In Dark Souls, we’ve added the ability to players to choose their recovery point — essentially respawn points. If you die, you won’t be taken back to the beginning of the level. And as you explore the world, you can carve out your own territory and retry quests you failed. That’s a big difference. It’s an aspect that we want players to use to strategize their approach to the game.
more…
SS: Like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls will include online co-op and competitive play. Are you planning any broad changes to the multiplayer?
HM: Yes. Throughout the game, there will be both cooperative and competitive play with other players. Each user will enjoy a unique single-player game; at times, they will cross paths with one another. Depending on the situation, the time, and the players’ goals, those players may cooperate or compete against each other. The multiplayer system we’re creating will envelop the single-player mode. Multiplayer will enhance single-player, make it more unique, compared to other games that emphasize traditional multiplayer co-op or competitive play.
SS: What’s the single addition to Dark Souls that you’re most excited by?
HM: Probably the Beacon Fire. It stands for a lot of things. It serves as a recovery point; when the player’s health is low, the Beacon Fire helps you recover. It serves as a respawn point as well. So it’s powerful from a gameplay perspective. Secondly, the Beacon Fire will be used to share experiences with other players. It’s a place where players can gather together and communicate — not verbally communicate, but emotionally communicate. Third, it’s probably the one place in Dark Souls where users can relax just for an instant. In this cold, dark world, the Beacon Fire is a place of warmth. It’s one of the few locations in the game that is heartwarming. It expresses this dark fantasy world I’m trying to create.
There’s also some screenshots.
Sounds terrific so far. Man this is turning out to be a crazy year for games. Way too much awesome coming.
This is hilarious. Wonder why the game was finally called “Dark Souls”?
Right before TGS 2010, the title of the game was Dark Race. The Dark Race would refer to the ones who were cursed in the game. This was going to be the real title and it even had a logo designed. But just before TGS they got feedback that it would sound incredibly racist to the western market. So Miyazaki had like 2 days to come up with a new title. He looked at the logo and said “Well if we can’t use Race, let’s keep the Dark.” and made the placeholder title Project Dark for the announcement.
After TGS, they took the word Dark from Project Dark to explore new title options. They decided on two titles: Dark Lord and Dark Ring. But Dark Lord was already taken as a trademark apparently, so they settled on Dark Ring instead. Unfortunately for the director, his luck with the English language is terrible, and he was informed before the start of this year that Dark Ring is also a British slang for the anus. Curses! This topic came about because 4Gamer asked him specifically about the Dark Ring trademark that Bandai Namco Games registered in Japan.
Apparently Dark Ring was chosen because the mark of the curse on a player was that of a circle somewhere on their body. This “Dark Ring” as a sign of the curse was fitting for the title, but it’s too bad that it would invoke thoughts of the anus in some people. After this, they settled on Dark Souls.
hahaha.
My bodyform is ready.
It’s a shame this likely won’t have crossplatform play. I would’ve liked to play with LK (we never did get a chance for co-op on the JPN/ASN version, haha) and anyone else who will be getting this on the 360.
Tower of Latria was my favourite Archstone in the first game, and that library shot does a good job of capturing a similar feeling.
Looks superb. Can’t wait.
Very nice. Those skeletons look creepy, and that third shot down gives me serious 3-1 flashbacks.
Please excuse me. I haven’t read any of the thread. Does anyone know when/if Demon Souls is coming to the PC?
About the same time Uncharted 1 will.
I am not familiar with that game. What is its story?
It’s sort of a Tomb Raider/shooter hybrid, but I think his point was that it’s a PS3 exclusive, and unlikely to ever come to the PC. The same is almost certainly true of Demon’s Souls.