The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[RPG on] Demon's Souls [PS3] - US release is out!
Eight Rooks
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
(DISCLAIMER: Been a long time since I maek thread, but here goes. I tend to write a lot, so apologies for that. Short version at the start, complete with YouTubage. tl;dr after that. Hope all the links and formatting work!)
DEMON'S SOULS [PS3] (From Software, 2009, ARPG, 1-4 player)
Time for the faithful to throw their hands in the air and praise Atlus' name for dragging another niche release kicking and screaming out of Japan. (Unless you *cough*imported it*cough*) How does a slow, lonely, epic third-person Roguelike developed in Japan with dark medieval fantasy aesthetics, the freakiest multiplayer going and a learning curve that'll rip your guts out grab you?
Perhaps you should play Demon's Souls.
I mean, Jesus, you people loved Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, right? I loved me some Shiren. Demon's Souls is better. SA love it, NeoGAF love it, GameFAQs love it... you don't really want to be left out do you?
All the cool kids like Demon's Souls.
Recent edits: First attempt at tidying things up, given the game's almost out in the US.
Linkage! (YouTube it, read reviews, wiki it)
Reviews, FAQs, guides, general information:
Demon's Souls can be found at Metacritic (yes, yes, I know) here.
Selected reviews from more reliable/entertaining sources across teh intertubes:
Gamespot have a pretty good review up! 9/10!
Eurogamer love it! 9/10!
So do RPGFan!
I've never heard of One Last Continue, but they like it too!
And here's the unofficial wiki.
YouTube!
Atlus have placed several videos of Demon's Souls on their YouTube channel, which can be found here.
This is Atlus' US trailer.
The original CG teaser/attract sequence.
The 10-minute Japanese extended trailer. (Shows most of the above, plus tutorial walkthrough etc. - CONTAINS SPOILERS)
The second boss, world one.
(CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Some four-player co-op on New Game+, world two.
Notes which may be of interest if you're actually playing! (Patch notes, PSN nicks, etc.)
How I can has my own copy? (How can I buy the game? Which version do I want? Where do I buy it?)
Remember, the PS3 is region-free! Thanks, Sony! You may need the right TV to play NTSC software on a PAL PS3, but any of these editions should otherwise run fine on any model of PS3.
Atlus' US release of Demon's Souls comes in Deluxe or Regular versions. I'm not too hot on American online retailers, but you can order the Deluxe from Amazon here, or the Regular edition here.
If you must import for whatever reason (though, like, you should totally show Atlus how awesome they are and buy their version, and stuff):
The Asian and Korean versions are fully, I repeat, fully in English apart from the manual. Voices, menus, subtitles, the works. Asian version even has a little quick reference sheet that's entirely in English!
Order the Asian version on YesAsia here.
Order the Asian version on PlayAsia here.
Or order the Asian version on NCSX here.
WARNING WARNING THIS MAN SURE DOES LOVE THE SOUND OF HIS OWN VOICE ARE YOU CERTAIN YOU WANT TO KEEP READING?
(This is a long and rambling explanation of what the hell this game you've never even heard of is - story, gameplay, difficulty, multiplayer etc.)
Well. But... I've typed so much even I'm starting to get bored and I figure most people here will tl;dr this. Still. This game is amazing, easily one of my favourites of the year so far. And a lot of you here did really, really like Shiren, as far as I remember. If you're even slightly interested in my brief synopsis way up top for the love of God buy it. Import, import, import. Ninja Blade getting picked up and not this ought to be a crime.
So! Questions? Anyone got it but hasn't said anything and figures now they ought to at least mention how awesome it is? Or just *crickets*?
Go for it.
DEMON'S SOULS [PS3] (From Software, 2009, ARPG, 1-4 player)
Time for the faithful to throw their hands in the air and praise Atlus' name for dragging another niche release kicking and screaming out of Japan. (Unless you *cough*imported it*cough*) How does a slow, lonely, epic third-person Roguelike developed in Japan with dark medieval fantasy aesthetics, the freakiest multiplayer going and a learning curve that'll rip your guts out grab you?
Perhaps you should play Demon's Souls.
I mean, Jesus, you people loved Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, right? I loved me some Shiren. Demon's Souls is better. SA love it, NeoGAF love it, GameFAQs love it... you don't really want to be left out do you?
All the cool kids like Demon's Souls.
Recent edits: First attempt at tidying things up, given the game's almost out in the US.
Linkage! (YouTube it, read reviews, wiki it)
Reviews, FAQs, guides, general information:
Demon's Souls can be found at Metacritic (yes, yes, I know) here.
Selected reviews from more reliable/entertaining sources across teh intertubes:
Gamespot have a pretty good review up! 9/10!
Eurogamer love it! 9/10!
So do RPGFan!
I've never heard of One Last Continue, but they like it too!
And here's the unofficial wiki.
YouTube!
Atlus have placed several videos of Demon's Souls on their YouTube channel, which can be found here.
This is Atlus' US trailer.
The original CG teaser/attract sequence.
The 10-minute Japanese extended trailer. (Shows most of the above, plus tutorial walkthrough etc. - CONTAINS SPOILERS)
The second boss, world one.
(CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Some four-player co-op on New Game+, world two.
Notes which may be of interest if you're actually playing! (Patch notes, PSN nicks, etc.)
The US servers are completely different to the Asian servers, unfortunately - Atlus supposedly don't want mismatched PvP between experienced players and terrified, scurrying nooblets. If you want to play with a friend you will both need the same copy of the game - both US, both Asian, both Korean or whatever.
If you're trying to influence world tendency for fun times and unique weapons and all, pay attention! The latest patch means while online, if you save and quit while in the Nexus, this will reset every world to Neutral. No Satsuki/Miralda/Doran/Primeval Demons et al for you! So beware, whether or not From meant it to work this way.
And a heads up which may possibly be of use to someone: sadly, Demon's Souls uses a protected save file. No transferring from system to system! As I've just found out with 50 hours' playtime down the can. Oh, well. Least I saw the ending first.
If you're trying to influence world tendency for fun times and unique weapons and all, pay attention! The latest patch means while online, if you save and quit while in the Nexus, this will reset every world to Neutral. No Satsuki/Miralda/Doran/Primeval Demons et al for you! So beware, whether or not From meant it to work this way.
And a heads up which may possibly be of use to someone: sadly, Demon's Souls uses a protected save file. No transferring from system to system! As I've just found out with 50 hours' playtime down the can. Oh, well. Least I saw the ending first.
How I can has my own copy? (How can I buy the game? Which version do I want? Where do I buy it?)
Remember, the PS3 is region-free! Thanks, Sony! You may need the right TV to play NTSC software on a PAL PS3, but any of these editions should otherwise run fine on any model of PS3.
Atlus' US release of Demon's Souls comes in Deluxe or Regular versions. I'm not too hot on American online retailers, but you can order the Deluxe from Amazon here, or the Regular edition here.
If you must import for whatever reason (though, like, you should totally show Atlus how awesome they are and buy their version, and stuff):
The Asian and Korean versions are fully, I repeat, fully in English apart from the manual. Voices, menus, subtitles, the works. Asian version even has a little quick reference sheet that's entirely in English!
Order the Asian version on YesAsia here.
Order the Asian version on PlayAsia here.
Or order the Asian version on NCSX here.
WARNING WARNING THIS MAN SURE DOES LOVE THE SOUND OF HIS OWN VOICE ARE YOU CERTAIN YOU WANT TO KEEP READING?
(This is a long and rambling explanation of what the hell this game you've never even heard of is - story, gameplay, difficulty, multiplayer etc.)
I did warn you, I don't do short.
You ready? From the wiki:
"Demon's Souls is the latest Role Playing Game created by the famed niche Japanese development team "From Software," creators of such franchises as Armored Core, Tenchu, Otogi and Chromehounds, and is published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Created to be the spiritual successor to the infamous King's Field franchise also created by From Software, Demon's Souls brings hardcore RPG action to the PlayStation 3."
Okay, time for a bit of Q&A.
Q: So what is Demon's Souls?
A: Like I said, a third-person Roguelike. Create a character, view them from a chase cam, run around fantasy landscapes a-hackin' an' a slashin' beasties so's NUMBERS GO UP and you get phat lewts and you can do it all over again to even stronger things. And so on.
Q: But there's, like, a million of these things out there. Diablo, for one. Plus God knows how many freeware bits and pieces. Why should I go for this?
A: Well... because it marries stunning visuals a la ICO or Shadow of the Colossus with balls-out rock-hard old-school gameplay. Because it's atmospheric like you've never seen - bleak, dark, unremittingly grim. Because it serves up beautifully refined classic gameplay mechanics with some surprisingly fresh ones on the side. Because it allows for a fair mix of different playing styles and gives you a fair amount of scope to tailor your character. Because it has a fairly decent story, if you like that sort of thing, with some jaw-dropping cutscenes along the way. Because it has a ton of neat shit you can collect and hoard like the crazed packrat you are.
Sound good?
Oh, yes, and it has bosses that are a hundred feet tall.
Q: Okay, starting to get interested, but... details! Details!
A: Okay. York notes version of the story, such as it is; the ruler of the kingdom of Boletaria, King Allant, got tempted by the whisperings of the Old One, the big ol' demon sealed away many years before by the Monumentals. The Monumentals being Ye Olde Mystic Order who saw the world was going haywire and mankind was abusing the power of the sorcerous arts and thought they'd lock all things mythical underground and hope people forgot about them. One convenient lunatic monarch later, the Old One's stirring in his prison, magic is free again, demons are on the loose and a colourless fog has sealed Boletaria away from the outside world... except for the heroes who wander in looking for lewts and magical weaponry with attack bonuses like a jackpot in Vegas.
The latest of these poor brave idiots, of course, being you!
The gameworld, once you've cleared the tutorial, comprises a hub - the Nexus - and five surrounding worlds (different parts of the kingdom). Each world is divided into several stages. Once you clear the boss in world one, stage one, you can (mostly) pick and choose where you want to head next. Four stages in world one, three in worlds two through five. Sixteen bosses, give or take. There's a boss for every stage - a more powerful sub-boss at the end of worlds two through five, and the final boss of the game at the end of world one. You make your way through the stage, you kill everything in your path, you solve a couple of very mild environmental puzzles, you get to the boss, you kill him. Rinse, repeat, the end.
Only it doesn't work like that because this game is hard.
Q: So you keep saying. How hard?
A: Hard.
You will die. You will die a lot, to the point where Ninja Gaiden II starts to seem like a relaxing alternative. You button-mash, you die. You rush in, you die. You stop concentrating, you die. You meet the boss first time... yeah, you see where I'm going with this.
As the wiki says, From Software view this as the spiritual sequel to their old King's Field games, first-person old-school RPGs where you needed the patience of a saint to get anywhere, and the gameplay in Demon's Souls is certainly a slightly - slightly - more forgiving version of this kind of thing. Combat is slow and methodical, at least for most players, to begin with. Light slash, heavy slash, block, parry, riposte. It's a matter of keeping your guard up, waiting for an opening and stabstabstabstabstab or if you can handle it, breaking your enemy's guard and landing a hit while he's staggering. Fluff your moves - mis-time them, misjudge your range or whatever - and it'll hurt. You have three gauges, health, mana and stamina, and the stamina bar Is Your God. Everything uses stamina, attacks, blocks, dodges, sprinting - doesn't matter how effective they are. Run out of stamina and you can't do anything. You die through button-mashing because none of your blows land properly and your stamina bar's gone and the enemy won't stop hitting you and you can't run away and aaaaaggggggghhhhhh *splat*. Dead.
Only that's where the game really gets started.
Q: Now I'm really confused.
A: But it's simple!
In Demon's Souls you can be in one of two states - your regular body or your soul form. Take a fatal hit in your physical body, you resurrect in soul form. You can't ever really "die". Each world has several checkpoints - one at the start, one after you've defeated each major boss. Every time you go down, you resurrect at the last checkpoint you reached. You get back to regular form by using a particular item or by defeating any boss.
This ties in with the difficulty because on the one hand, if you die, you're kicked all the way back to the beginning of the level -
Q: Oh hell no.
A: Wait! Thing is, Demon's Souls doesn't do random levels. There are shortcuts everywhere you can open up permanently, so with careful play and a good memory for detail, in the end you can race through a stage straight to whatever boss you're currently stuck on. Plus, unlike your classic Roguelike model, Demon's Souls does not take away whatever items you're carrying.
Q: Say what? But how exactly is that a challenge?
A: Well, see - the one thing the game does take away...
...is your monies. Or what passes for monies. There's no gold. You can't sell any surplus items you pick up. When you kill an enemy, you drain its Mystical Glowing Green Sparklies - its "souls", if you'd rather - and this is what every vendor in the game accepts in lieu of the readies. Including - and this is the challenge - the NPC who levels you up.
So you die (regular or soul form) and you lose every single soul you've collected up to that point. You get one chance, one chance, to pick them back up: if you can get back to the spot you died without being wiped out again, you can pick them up... but die again before reaching that point and they're gone for good. Keep dying over and over and losing everything you're grinding for and you will not get anything out of it. It is an insanely vicious case of risk versus reward: should you turn back now, or keep going? If you die will you be able to get this far through the stage again? And remember, you will die. A lot. The basic enemies on several stages can paste you in a couple of swings, there's catwalks over bottomless pits all over the place, stages in near pitch darkness, traps that knock off most of your health, entire areas that poison you...
And bosses that are a hundred feet tall. Don't forget them.
Q: And I have to do this all on my own?
A: Sort of!
This is the other surprisingly interesting thing/cool new idea Demon's Souls has going for it. It's primarily a single-player game: you can get through the whole thing offline if you're that dedicated (or just plain badass). Multiplayer isn't compulsory. But...
Q: Multiplayer?
A: Damn straight.
Even if you're hooked up to PSN, by default you don't play with other people per se. But you see them - people doing the same levels, just in their own little instanced worlds, if you like. White ghosts running past you, swinging at nothing, that sort of thing. Plus whenever any player dies, they leave a bloodstain. A gory little Post-It, so to speak. Touch another player's bloodstain and you'll see a replay of the last few seconds before they snuffed it. Sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, sometimes a vital heads-up there's something around the next corner that got him.
Q: Yeah, reeeal helpful.
A: We're not done. There are two main sides to multiplayer.
Co-op, for starters. Any player in regular physical form can summon players in spirit form who've tagged themselves as ready to co-op. Can't crack a stage, can't take down a boss? Drag some randoms in and team up for massive damage. Any co-op players in spirit form who successfully take down a boss get revived in physical form, too.
But there's also PvP. There's another item players stuck in soul form can use which registers them as wanting some PK action. Anyone wandering around in physical form can have their game forcibly invaded - the other player incarnates as a "black phantom", their goal being to kill the host to get their body back as a reward. Don't like the sound of that? Tough - there's no escaping - victory, death or suicide are pretty much your only choices. Or disconnecting. But no-one likes a crybaby.
Q: Is there more?
A: Oh Christ yes. I haven't even mentioned the crafting, or shifting the world's alignment, or the subquests, or the chat system, or the NPCs, or...
But...
You ready? From the wiki:
"Demon's Souls is the latest Role Playing Game created by the famed niche Japanese development team "From Software," creators of such franchises as Armored Core, Tenchu, Otogi and Chromehounds, and is published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Created to be the spiritual successor to the infamous King's Field franchise also created by From Software, Demon's Souls brings hardcore RPG action to the PlayStation 3."
Okay, time for a bit of Q&A.
Q: So what is Demon's Souls?
A: Like I said, a third-person Roguelike. Create a character, view them from a chase cam, run around fantasy landscapes a-hackin' an' a slashin' beasties so's NUMBERS GO UP and you get phat lewts and you can do it all over again to even stronger things. And so on.
Q: But there's, like, a million of these things out there. Diablo, for one. Plus God knows how many freeware bits and pieces. Why should I go for this?
A: Well... because it marries stunning visuals a la ICO or Shadow of the Colossus with balls-out rock-hard old-school gameplay. Because it's atmospheric like you've never seen - bleak, dark, unremittingly grim. Because it serves up beautifully refined classic gameplay mechanics with some surprisingly fresh ones on the side. Because it allows for a fair mix of different playing styles and gives you a fair amount of scope to tailor your character. Because it has a fairly decent story, if you like that sort of thing, with some jaw-dropping cutscenes along the way. Because it has a ton of neat shit you can collect and hoard like the crazed packrat you are.
Sound good?
Oh, yes, and it has bosses that are a hundred feet tall.
Q: Okay, starting to get interested, but... details! Details!
A: Okay. York notes version of the story, such as it is; the ruler of the kingdom of Boletaria, King Allant, got tempted by the whisperings of the Old One, the big ol' demon sealed away many years before by the Monumentals. The Monumentals being Ye Olde Mystic Order who saw the world was going haywire and mankind was abusing the power of the sorcerous arts and thought they'd lock all things mythical underground and hope people forgot about them. One convenient lunatic monarch later, the Old One's stirring in his prison, magic is free again, demons are on the loose and a colourless fog has sealed Boletaria away from the outside world... except for the heroes who wander in looking for lewts and magical weaponry with attack bonuses like a jackpot in Vegas.
The latest of these poor brave idiots, of course, being you!
The gameworld, once you've cleared the tutorial, comprises a hub - the Nexus - and five surrounding worlds (different parts of the kingdom). Each world is divided into several stages. Once you clear the boss in world one, stage one, you can (mostly) pick and choose where you want to head next. Four stages in world one, three in worlds two through five. Sixteen bosses, give or take. There's a boss for every stage - a more powerful sub-boss at the end of worlds two through five, and the final boss of the game at the end of world one. You make your way through the stage, you kill everything in your path, you solve a couple of very mild environmental puzzles, you get to the boss, you kill him. Rinse, repeat, the end.
Only it doesn't work like that because this game is hard.
Q: So you keep saying. How hard?
A: Hard.
You will die. You will die a lot, to the point where Ninja Gaiden II starts to seem like a relaxing alternative. You button-mash, you die. You rush in, you die. You stop concentrating, you die. You meet the boss first time... yeah, you see where I'm going with this.
As the wiki says, From Software view this as the spiritual sequel to their old King's Field games, first-person old-school RPGs where you needed the patience of a saint to get anywhere, and the gameplay in Demon's Souls is certainly a slightly - slightly - more forgiving version of this kind of thing. Combat is slow and methodical, at least for most players, to begin with. Light slash, heavy slash, block, parry, riposte. It's a matter of keeping your guard up, waiting for an opening and stabstabstabstabstab or if you can handle it, breaking your enemy's guard and landing a hit while he's staggering. Fluff your moves - mis-time them, misjudge your range or whatever - and it'll hurt. You have three gauges, health, mana and stamina, and the stamina bar Is Your God. Everything uses stamina, attacks, blocks, dodges, sprinting - doesn't matter how effective they are. Run out of stamina and you can't do anything. You die through button-mashing because none of your blows land properly and your stamina bar's gone and the enemy won't stop hitting you and you can't run away and aaaaaggggggghhhhhh *splat*. Dead.
Only that's where the game really gets started.
Q: Now I'm really confused.
A: But it's simple!
In Demon's Souls you can be in one of two states - your regular body or your soul form. Take a fatal hit in your physical body, you resurrect in soul form. You can't ever really "die". Each world has several checkpoints - one at the start, one after you've defeated each major boss. Every time you go down, you resurrect at the last checkpoint you reached. You get back to regular form by using a particular item or by defeating any boss.
This ties in with the difficulty because on the one hand, if you die, you're kicked all the way back to the beginning of the level -
Q: Oh hell no.
A: Wait! Thing is, Demon's Souls doesn't do random levels. There are shortcuts everywhere you can open up permanently, so with careful play and a good memory for detail, in the end you can race through a stage straight to whatever boss you're currently stuck on. Plus, unlike your classic Roguelike model, Demon's Souls does not take away whatever items you're carrying.
Q: Say what? But how exactly is that a challenge?
A: Well, see - the one thing the game does take away...
...is your monies. Or what passes for monies. There's no gold. You can't sell any surplus items you pick up. When you kill an enemy, you drain its Mystical Glowing Green Sparklies - its "souls", if you'd rather - and this is what every vendor in the game accepts in lieu of the readies. Including - and this is the challenge - the NPC who levels you up.
So you die (regular or soul form) and you lose every single soul you've collected up to that point. You get one chance, one chance, to pick them back up: if you can get back to the spot you died without being wiped out again, you can pick them up... but die again before reaching that point and they're gone for good. Keep dying over and over and losing everything you're grinding for and you will not get anything out of it. It is an insanely vicious case of risk versus reward: should you turn back now, or keep going? If you die will you be able to get this far through the stage again? And remember, you will die. A lot. The basic enemies on several stages can paste you in a couple of swings, there's catwalks over bottomless pits all over the place, stages in near pitch darkness, traps that knock off most of your health, entire areas that poison you...
And bosses that are a hundred feet tall. Don't forget them.
Q: And I have to do this all on my own?
A: Sort of!
This is the other surprisingly interesting thing/cool new idea Demon's Souls has going for it. It's primarily a single-player game: you can get through the whole thing offline if you're that dedicated (or just plain badass). Multiplayer isn't compulsory. But...
Q: Multiplayer?
A: Damn straight.
Even if you're hooked up to PSN, by default you don't play with other people per se. But you see them - people doing the same levels, just in their own little instanced worlds, if you like. White ghosts running past you, swinging at nothing, that sort of thing. Plus whenever any player dies, they leave a bloodstain. A gory little Post-It, so to speak. Touch another player's bloodstain and you'll see a replay of the last few seconds before they snuffed it. Sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, sometimes a vital heads-up there's something around the next corner that got him.
Q: Yeah, reeeal helpful.
A: We're not done. There are two main sides to multiplayer.
Co-op, for starters. Any player in regular physical form can summon players in spirit form who've tagged themselves as ready to co-op. Can't crack a stage, can't take down a boss? Drag some randoms in and team up for massive damage. Any co-op players in spirit form who successfully take down a boss get revived in physical form, too.
But there's also PvP. There's another item players stuck in soul form can use which registers them as wanting some PK action. Anyone wandering around in physical form can have their game forcibly invaded - the other player incarnates as a "black phantom", their goal being to kill the host to get their body back as a reward. Don't like the sound of that? Tough - there's no escaping - victory, death or suicide are pretty much your only choices. Or disconnecting. But no-one likes a crybaby.
Q: Is there more?
A: Oh Christ yes. I haven't even mentioned the crafting, or shifting the world's alignment, or the subquests, or the chat system, or the NPCs, or...
But...
Well. But... I've typed so much even I'm starting to get bored and I figure most people here will tl;dr this. Still. This game is amazing, easily one of my favourites of the year so far. And a lot of you here did really, really like Shiren, as far as I remember. If you're even slightly interested in my brief synopsis way up top for the love of God buy it. Import, import, import. Ninja Blade getting picked up and not this ought to be a crime.
So! Questions? Anyone got it but hasn't said anything and figures now they ought to at least mention how awesome it is? Or just *crickets*?
Go for it.
<AtlusParker> Sorry I'm playing Pokemon and vomiting at the same time so I'm not following the conversation in a linear fashion.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
Eight Rooks on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
I really need to get this soon.
I may have to import down the line.
I....I what? That sounds so friggin' cool.
Man, this generation really wants me to import a bunch of stuff.
I can imagine any area just completely stained with blood, the deaths of thousands of players painting the perfect picture of your pending peril.
So this is pretty much "Sim Swordsman". WANT.
Fuuuuuuck
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Well, you guys are getting Monster Hunter 3.
Eventually.
Hahahahaha
Yeah, I really wish I had a PS3 for this. I love games that kick your ass so many times that even the tiniest of victories feels worth it.
I don't mean the fuckin' Wii, I mean the PC
All that online shit sounds awesome
I love how everyone who dies leaves a bloodspot. Not only is it atmospheric, but if there's a lot all centered around a specific spot, you don't even need the ghosts to tell you to look the fuck out
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Sadly no thousands of bloodstains, and once you've run the gauntlet a few times they do become more amusement than anything else - enemy placement is unfortunately exactly the same every time (not to mention a lot of bloodstains are from people abusing one prominent glitch). They're still pretty atmospheric though.
There's only seven melee moves - L1 block, L2 parry, R1 light swing, R2 heavy swing, block then attack for a riposte, strike from dead centre behind for a backstab, L1 and forward to push people backwards - but combat is still way, way cool. Moves look fairly different between different classes of weapon, weapons vary in performance a great deal, you can combo swings as long as your stamina holds up... locking on and off really helps for some enemies, too. Bosses particularly.
Lot of the fun is in the details - press triangle to switch to a two-handed grip (on anything) to hit harder but suffer a weaker guard. Looks fairly different again. Or you can swing a two-handed sword one-handed, if you're buff enough. This also looks very cool. Most of the previews over here (from back at TGS last year) dismissed the combat as slow and clunky. It is slow. This is good. Swing a bastard or greatsword and it will go hopelessly slowly if you're just flailing around. You can get away with this later to an extent, when you're up to one-hit-killing weaker things, but it still puts you in quite a bit of danger even at that stage. To start with you definitely need to watch your range, time your strikes, all of that.
It's not quite Sim Swordsman ;-) but it's shockingly close for an ARPG.
It might come out in the West. I hope it does! It deserves it. No word from any US publisher that I'm aware of, though. I did hear XSEED might be doing it, but that was just random message board chatter. It's actually pretty difficult to get hold of on import right now. All the major online stores are backordered and people seem to be turning to eBay quite a lot.
If it did come out over here - if... some of the translation could stand to be redone. I'm assuming From had different teams working on it - it's all legible but the character dialogue is much, much more eloquent than the menus and the chat system. It is also the first game I've ever come across which I would say you can argue should not have voice communication. For serious. We are so not talking LFG SLAY MANEATER WANT PRIEST W REZ KTHXBAI here. A huge part of the atmosphere is down to how the setup makes you feel isolated and afraid even when you're hooked up to the online - I mean, hey, the other players are ghosts, after all. It does feel fairly appropriate they can't speak. You're talking about a game where even the PKers frequently chase you down - then stop and bow to you before attempting to hack you in two with a meat cleaver.
But every little hyperactive 15-year-old over here would demand voice chat and a party system anyway.
It is so, so awesome, believe me. You like Shiren, Monster Hunter, even Otogi, there's something here for you. I have finished the game once: I'd be New Game+ right now if I didn't have to send my PS3 to Sony for a replacement tomorrow. I don't doubt it'd get largely hounded by the mainstream press in the US or Europe, but it did get pretty far up the charts in Nippon (apparently sold surprisingly well overall)... so it might find an appreciative audience over here.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
It looks a little... too 'grim' for my tastes though.
This spirit has a name. It is called:
"IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT, STAY OUT OF MY FUCKING DEMON'S KITCHEN, OR I'LL RAPE YOUR LAME-ASS PUSSY SOUL SEVEN WAYS BEFORE YOU CAN DRAW THAT FUCKING BUTTER KNIFE YOU CALL A SWORD."
Seriously, it's totally worth a purchase, even if importing is a pain in the ass. If there's anyone from the South Pacific (NZ and AUS) wondering about PAL PS3 compatibility - don't worry, the Chinese/Asian version (and, I assume, the Korean version) work fine.
YES I EXPLAINED THIS TO YOU LIVE WITH IT BEEYATCH
Seriously, though - C&Ping from one of my posts on another forum - I could argue Demon's Souls' combat is really a much better version of what Prince of Persia/Fable II were trying. It is tough and you will die over and over and over but ultimately if you're in soul form and you pay attention and you play properly death is no hindrance at all. You just need the right mindset. At least PoP made dying some kind of bar to doing well and set a clear divider between repeatedly falling into a bottomless pit and stringing together a decent run. In Fable II "death" (such as it is) is meaningless, and so becomes an irritation even if you're winning: you're aware there's absolutely no challenge and little discernible difference to how you do whether you attempt to play "well" or just throw yourself at obstacles again and again. I beat the entire game without dying once, and what I largely felt was frustration: DS I died countless times yet every one of them I knew not only that it was my fault but also exactly what I ought to be doing and how quickly I could get back to where I was. Not to mention I wanted to. Fable II I had to force myself to finish.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
Where's a good/reliable place to buy this from and have it shipped to the UK?
I fucking loved Shiren, and played the hell out of it when I bought it. I got a bit tired of farming disposable equipment sets for trying the harder dungeons though, and whenever I go back to it I'm never sure I can remember enough to risk going after the harder dungeons with good gear.
But yeah, this looks suitably awesome given that I loved SotC, OP basically sold me a copy =P
PlayAsia are good but will no longer ship Sony products to the UK flat, so they're out. I've read a lot of people saying good things about NCSX - haven't checked to see what their international shipping's like, though.
Just to say it again: it's proving very difficult for a lot of people to get hold of. My PS3 needs replacing because it swallowed a disc - DS, in fact, and when I talked to Sony tech support they actually asked "What game's stuck in there, in case we have to replace it for you?" and when I explained, they'd heard of it and knew it was a pain to source. All the major stores have been on backorder for a while and the other threads I've been reading on the game, people seem to have been using eBay a lot.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
It needs to come out in the US on the 360
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Ordered Aquanaut's, Afrika, and Demon's Souls.
Had to do it on 3 seperate orders since Aquanauts and this were on backorder, but I should have Afrika (or Hakuna Matata I guess I should say) by next week at the latest.
Different strokes and that, but if they do fit any kind of voice chat my Lord I hope From at least stop you from talking to anyone you aren't. You don't really need to speak to your co-op buddies, to be honest... (I mean, I took down the final boss co-op and wouldn't have wanted it any other way) but the idea of actually yelling at any passing ghosts - or even black phantoms - would definitely kill a good deal of the atmosphere stone dead. It seems a weird and, you know, kind of Luddite thing to say, but this is (possibly the) one game where I really would argue Tycho has no fucking idea what he's talking about. ;-)
Oh, and Gothic 2 isn't far off. Minus the weird, (IMO) out-of-place humour. Not many dope fiends or indeed much light relief at all here. It is a startlingly good take on a Westernised mythos, though, certainly. Probably the best one I've ever seen coming from a Japanese developer - I really liked what story and voice-acting the game has. Nice performances, no crazy made-up names, the feeling this could possibly maybe almost be an actual place when it's not over-run with screaming fiends trying to hack you into dogfood. As in the complete opposite of just about every Final Fantasy ever made (ohoho I went there).
And while I don't use eBay much these days, quoted for worth considering - DS is pretty tough to get hold of at the moment. Supposedly the online stores are soon to get another order in; YMMV and all that. Like I said, I had to wait more than three weeks for mine to turn up.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
But
This game is exactly what Tycho was talking about when he talked about games which could use voice chat in ways that were atmospheric or conducive to gameplay
Maybe, like, if you got near a ghost, you could hear him saying things into his mic through some kind of weird echoey filter or something
Or in co-op you'd have to stick together because the farther you got from one another, the less volume your voice had
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Huh. That... is interesting. I back down. Just a little.
I still don't like the idea of actually being able to party down here - part of the appeal for me currently is the lucky dip of not knowing precisely who you'll get in co-op, there's another reason - but... I could maybe deal with ghostly voices now I think about it. It would need some really careful implementation, though, IMO. Just flanging people to infinity and beyond wouldn't work so well.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
All the weapons feel cool, and there's a real difference between a big, slow sword or polearm, a stabby spear, a fast dagger/claw, or swords and katanas. Magic is nice, some decent but not flashy attack spells, and some awesome utility spells.
There's even first person archery, which is great.
I love how there are different approached to combat, even to bosses. You really don't have to play it one particular way. Like, the video of the large knight boss in the op:
It can be really, really intense when you see the text 'Player X has invaded your game'.
Had it happen the first time in the jail. Ends up in a really intense sword and shield versus spear and shield duel, which I won. Go spears and tight corridors.
Had 2 invasions happen, by two different people, in the same level, within a few minutes.
Get the message that a guy has invaded, so I backtrack a bit to a narrow bridge, enchant my spear, hold up my shield and get ready to basically die. Guy approaches me, but falls off the bridge before we ever exchange blows.
Second guy in that level, and I'm fairly far in, figure I'll just outpace him and leave him behind. Only, he's ahead of me, waiting by some stairs - I can see his gigantic, red sword sticking out around a corner. I sneak up, lock on to him, jump around the corner and *stabstabstab*. He takes no damage.
I go, 'huh'. Then he hits me back for 90% of my health. I go, 'huh'. I start desperately rolling back, and he misses his next few attacks, then retreats to the stairs. I figure I'll never kill him, and he invaded my game - so I'll not fight fair. I get out my magic wand, select a poison spell, venture close enough to hit him with it, then I run like no one has ever run before. About two minutes later, I get the message that he has died. Oh yes.
Two down, in one level, and I'm feeling rather cocky - even if I didn't actually put up a fair fight, or any fight. So I venture forth, and the next monster I encounter kills me.
My only, minor, gripe is that with some of the more expensive weapon upgrades, you can't really get a feel for how they work in action until you've paid for them, and by then you can't reload if you're unhappy. It's no big deal, though.
The invasion aspect seems to be pretty awesome.
Since you can get to most bosses really quickly, dying becomes less annoying once you've gotten into the swing of things. The levels are often very cleverly designed to allow very fast boss access after the initial exploration, whereas there's lots of stuff you can seek out if you want to.
Also, there's a whole thing of light/dark tendency in levels which open up new paths, or introduce new enemies.
Actually, there's something which should be included in the OP, in sky-high letters:
Don't ever quit the game while in the Nexus. There's a bug with tendency, from the wiki:
"The patch 1.02 seemed to have introduce a bug.
Here's the details:
Suppose one of your world is Pure Black and the rest neutral.
If you quit game in the Nexus.
The next time you load the game in online mode, all 5 worlds is reset to Neutral once you enter the Nexus.
If you load the game in offline mode, this bug does not happened.
Possible remedy:
Quit your game in any world except the Nexus.
It seemed that the game freeze any world status change when you not in the Nexus."
That will make sense once people play, and jumping in to any given world to quit isn't a big deal. You restart where you quit, even if you're in the middle of a level.
I haven't PvP'd much - never invaded, and spent most of the time in soul form, as many people do - but I did have a couple of good black phantom fights even so. I was doing a run in stage two on the Shrine of Storms - long, narrow cliffside pathways, basically - I get the "Black phantom X has broken in!" message, I think "Ah, hell with this" and make a run for it, figure I'll get him to work for his kill. I've had people fall off chasing me before, so why not? Only he tails me the whole way, and what started off as an amusing piece of Yakkety Sax turns into a race for my life. I stumble on one of the harder mobs along the way, he catches up with me in this underground tunnel section, before a cavern that leads to the final boss. He's swinging at my back with a buffed-up Dragon Longsword, turning me all crispy on one side, and I think "Oh, Christ, he's got me". Stop and turn in the cavern, lash out at him, I go off the rocky walkway into the water below. He follows me, twenty seconds of frantic button-mashing follow... and I almost had him. Down to a sliver of health and then he got the final blow. If I hadn't run like a little girl to begin with I probably would have won. <_<
It can often be frustrating - lag meaning your opponent backstabs you from across the room, or people rolling around more than a server running Gears of War 24-7 - but it is also a lot of fun, whether you get the honourable-assassin sort of Black Phantom or the shits-and-giggles kind. For all I don't want to see the game LOLFAG'd, I did laugh at the number of people on GameFAQs talking about PvP encounters where they both stripped off their armour, bowed, then started a boxing match.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
I haven't noticed any real lag, but then I haven't done that much pvp'ing. The rolling makes sense though, it's generally better to dodge than block.
Npc characters fight with lots of rolling to, both to dodge and to get right up to you to deliver a quick blow.
I'd be all for boxing.. if I could use my iron knuckles.