E3 09: Demon's Souls
Atlus goes for the PS3 in a big way with Demon's Souls, a moody RPG set in a world filled with ghosts and bloodstains and a "world tendency" system that adjusts your enemies aggressiveness and loot dropped based on your performance. NPC interactions also change based on the world tendency.
The 13 base classes and tiered development system should add some depth to the hack'n'slash swordplay, but its the mechanics of death that make the game most interesting: for starters, the game's online component is at work even during the single player campaign - you'll see bloodstains on the floor where other gamers have perished, and by touching these stains you'll see a ghostly reenactment of their demise. Come across multiple bloodstains and you'll know you're in for a challenge - somehow.
Similar to the bloodstain mechanic is the message mechanic - you can leave messages for those who come after you, through a simple mad lib style menu. And if you should die, you'll return in "soulform" and must find your corpse to recover your currency, which also doubles as XP that you can spend to enhance your powers, Fable style.
And multiplayer is no slouch either - you can enter another player's game to wreak havoc, enjoy 2p coop, and more that we've yet to see. Atlus and RPG fans, look for this PS3 exclusive in October.
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 7 June 2009
· Comments (3)
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Ive had the HK version for awhile now, and I can tell you the game is brutally hard. Death is a real punishment in this game. If you die, you become soul form and have 1/2 - 3/4 HP (if you have a special ring equipped). You have to make it back to your body to recover XP, but you DONT return to human form until you defeat a boss, or use a fairly rare potion.
The bosses only spawn ONCE per playthrough. So you cant just go back and kill an easy boss to respawn, you have to keep grinding XP to get strong enough to go for the next boss to revive.
It also dosnt help that even the weakest enemies in the game can kill you in 1-2 hits and the game is laid out that you have to keep retrying areas to learn enemy patterns etc to make it through.
Apart from all this negative stuff (or positive if your into brutal S&M), the game is incredibly rewarding. You have a good sense of progress, and defeating MASSIVE bosses is beyond satisfying. Also the online mode can be real cool, or really annoying (if your game is invaded).
Lets hope they fix the connection issues. If your disconnected while playing alone, your game still ends and your kicked out to the title menu, with all XP lost since your last autosave.
Other than beating the boss at each level. You will also revive (get your body back) if you play co-op with other gamers as a "blue phantom" AND help the summoner beat the boss, OR to invade other gamers' world as a "black phantom", after you defeating him, you will get his body :(
Demon's Souls has the most unique online gameplay design that I have ever experienced on a console. You can choose to pass a level by yourself or summon two other gamers to join your adventure. Why did From Software degisn a 3-person co-op but not a 4-person one? Because the 4th slot is saved for the black phantom. Most of the time, defeating a black phantom is more challenging than fighting the boss. For certain "popular" levels, you may face the black phantom invasion MANY TIMES before you get to fight the boss. I think this is a very cool design and it certainly adds more depth to this game.
Demon's Souls is great game. It really is. I highly recommend it to everyone who owns a PS3.
All i know is that this music is hilarious.